Define Love
by The Nearly Missed
Summary: The one small arc of Naruto: Shippuden you didn't see because the Akasuki are supposed to be tough and not fall in love. HidanXOC. Mucho swearing, be warned. Takes place about episodes 72 to 89 in the anime.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Okay, so this idea's been lurking around in my head for a while now. A couple of the OCs you'll see in here are from an original story I'm currently writing called Mourning Dove. Forgive me for any possible OOCness. I'll warn you now: I may not update as quickly as I'd like to, but I _will_. I've already got a couple chapters written, so they'll probably be out once a week on Fridays. Credit for helping me come up with the title and summary (still makes me lul) as well as an overall thanks, goes to my friends Jocie and Befy, who gladly put up with my arbitrary ranting about things that aren't really real. What a shame.

Sadly, I do not own Naruto. ): That honor goes to Masashi Kishimoto. I do, however, own Asaki, so no stealing her, mkay?

Hope you enjoy! Reviews make my day, hint hint. ;)

**X**

The morning sun peeked over the faraway tree line. Asaki crouched in a clearing amongst large boulders poking out of the still chilled ground. She turned her back to the sunrise, rolling up her sleeping mat and tying it to her pack. She swung it over her shoulders and, glancing one more time at the flurry of oranges behind her, started walking.

_Father's going to kill me. If he ever finds me, that is,_ Asaki thought for the hundredth time in the last week. She had already seen the posters. Her father was giving away practically half his fortune for the safe return of his precious runaway daughter. She shook her head. If he wanted a perfect daughter, he should have another child and hope for a girl.

The sun rose slowly over the mountain as she hiked through the outcropping. After about ten minutes of walking, Asaki hit the small stream she had been traveling along. Toes stepped straight into the icy water, not flinching. She'd been journeying like that since she left home. It kept the dogs from tracking her scent, as far as she could tell.

She shook out her arms, stretching the stiffness of sleep still lingering. Her gray-purple shirt hung loosely from her frame, her left shoulder exposed. A much darker purple, skin-tight long sleeved undershirt was below that, covering her midriff and forearms where the larger shirt didn't reach. She wore plain tan pants that stopped just past her knees and her usual sandals.

Asaki stopped, the water coursing around her ankles, and looked to the sky. The rising sun reflected off her gray eyes. _Back home,_ she mused, _they must be searching like somebody actually important had gone missing._

-x-

"Will you hurry up, Hidan?" Kakuzu said, annoyed. "Go faster or I'll kill you."

"Oh shut up! I'll be done in a minute," Hidan snapped back. He reached to the sky and plunged the metal spike into his black skin, and the man before him crumbled to his knees, grabbing at his chest. Laughter spilled from the Akatsuki's mouth, relishing the pain and the thrill of living through it. He grinned and screamed to the dying man in front of him, "You feel that? You feel the pain? Enjoy it, every last second of it!" The smile faded from his lips as the man dropped to the ground, lifeless. His own body tumbled as well, smearing the diagram of blood on the rock below him. His black and white skin faded back into his normal pink. Kakuzu kicked the ground, sending a pebble into Hidan's silver hair. A moment later, the Akatsuki on the ground jerked and reached up, dislodged the spike from his chest with a grunt, collapsed it, and hid it back in his clouded robe.

Kakuzu stepped toward the man still lying dead on the ground and heaved him up over one shoulder. _This one's worth quite a bit. The bounty's going to be a good one, _he thought. Hidan stood and dusted off his robe. "Was that fast enough for you?"

"No," Kakuzu deadpanned. "If you could just finish them off without making such a display every time, that would be much better."

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and miss out on all the fun? Sure," he said, the statement dripping with sarcasm. "I wouldn't have to do this if you weren't so fucking greedy. Jashin won't have mercy on you with that mindset."

"I don't care about your God. Money is what makes this world turn," Kakuzu droned.

The bickering proceeded as the pair turned toward the nearest bounty exchange point, as well as toward a pair of eyes staring dead ahead at the scene that had just played out.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Not even the second chapter and I missed my update day. T_T Oh well, sorry guys! I've been pretty busy with a school play going on next weekend. So, hope you enjoy chapter two! :D

Asaki was trembling. She could feel it, as well as see it if she stopped long enough to look. She picked her way quickly through the underbrush in the opposite direction, but unfortunately for her, she was no stealthy kunoichi and made as much noise as an elephant trying to tiptoe through a field of seashells. She broke through into a grassy field about a quarter mile away. The first things to meet her eyes were two imposing dark figures.

"I'm curious as to what such a young lady is doing out here all by herself. Care to explain?" Kakuzu asked threateningly.

She looked up at the man towering a full foot above her head. "No, not presently, thank you."

"Well, we can't be sure you weren't spying on us. Can't have you alerting anyone about our presence, can we?" Hidan drawled lazily, hands behind his head, almost touching his large red, three-pronged scythe. "I just might have to kill you."

Kakuzu grunted in agreement.

Asaki could only stare up at the two men, as well as the nonliving one on the taller's shoulder, a terrified but defiant expression on her face. But after what she just witnessed, these guys could inflict some damage. Before Kakuzu could continue, she said calmly, "I wasn't spying. But why should you believe me?" Her mind worked quickly. "I have a proposition for you."

Kakuzu nodded slowly. "Go on…"

"I heard you two say something about a bounty back there, right? You want money?" Kakuzu nodded suspiciously and Hidan rolled his eyes. "I thought so. I've been traveling around, and I happened to run into someone. After a small skirmish with some thugs we met on the road, he told me that there was a bounty on his head. About 25 million, if I remember correctly. If you let me go in one piece, I'll lead you to him."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes. "As you said, why should we believe you?" He was expressionless behind his mask.

She nodded, something of a wistful grin on her face. "If, by chance, I lead you into a trap or go back on my word, you can kill me. It's as simple as that." Hidan's eyes lit up and a sadistic smile spread over his lips. It wasn't going to happen, but if by chance something went wrong and Hidan did come after her, Asaki already decided she wouldn't put up a fight. If death was going to find her, it'd be destiny. She couldn't change that. But she knew for sure that the man she was thinking of truly did have a large reward for his head, and she also knew exactly where he lived.

"So who is this guy? What's his name?" Hidan asked, sounding rather bored.

"His name is Aomizu Kiagii," Asaki paused, looking for a sign of recognition in either of their faces. They had too good poker faces if they did. "He possesses the Kiagii Clan's Kekkei genkai justu, an Earth element jutsu called Blades of Destruction. I've seen it in action, and let me warn you now, there's a good reason he's wanted."

Kakuzu bowed his head slightly. "Very well. I'll hold you to your word. Hidan," he called to the silver-haired man standing beside him, "don't harm her. I want to be sure we find Aomizu Kiagii. Keep her in one piece."

He began to turn, and Hidan nodded too, a sly grin on his face. "Keep up, or you'll end up like that one," he paused, pointing to the dead bounty his partner was carrying. Asaki shuddered and pressed her lips together, the acrid scent of blood filling her nose. She held back a gag, putting her hand to her mouth.

Kakuzu turned around quickly. "Did I not just say to leave her unharmed? You lay one finger on her and I'll kill you."

Hidan sniffed. "If you could, I'd let you. But it doesn't seem like that's gonna happen any time soon, now does it?" Kakuzu just looked at him. "Ah, don't worry; I won't hurt the little twerp." He waved his hand, dismissing the topic.

The fear and maturity melted away. "I am not a twerp!" Asaki blurted out, outraged. She clenched her fists to her sides.

Hidan threw his head back and laughed. "Are you sure? You're awfully short and whiny. That's my definition of 'twerp.'" Hidan raised a hand to collar bone, which was about where Asaki's head reached to.

The runaway huffed. "For your information, I am seventeen years old, and I inherited my father's height. Blame him for my shortness," _along with everything else that's been happening, _she thought before continuing, "And I think you'd be a little whiny too, if you were running away from home and was caught by two gruesomely capable men and was helping to secure a bounty and could be found at any minute and taken back to the very place I've been trying to escape!"

"Eh, whatever." Once again, Hidan waved the subject away.

"If you two are done bickering, we should get going. It will be a while yet till we reach the exchange point," Kakuzu said and walked away without looking back to see if the two were following. They would come without any real question.

Sure enough, Hidan gestured to Asaki impatiently. "You heard him. Get going."

The brown-haired teen glared at him, but stepped forward anyway, falling into step behind Kakuzu. Hidan followed, watching her closely. "Insults aside, you _are_ kind of short for your age," Hidan said.

Asaki stopped abruptly, stepping backward into the younger man, jabbing her elbow into his ribs. He huffed and pushed her gently forward. "Don't call me short," she glowered at the Akatsuki and kept walking. "The name's Asaki. Asaki Aikino."

"Jeez. Hotheaded little brat." _Give her explosives and a wig and she'd be Deidara._

"Hidan," Kakuzu called from where he paused fifteen feet ahead, "Stop flirting and keep moving. She'll be out of our hands soon enough and we'll have the bounty. He's worth at least as much as this one, so don't screw it up." He readjusted the body on his shoulder and Asaki cringed.

Hidan stopped and stared at Kakuzu, disgusted. "_Flirting_ with this _pipsqueak?_ I'll be dead first," he growled and dragged himself after them.

Asaki swung her head around and gave him another look. "Pipsqueak? Say that a—"

"Miss Aikino. We're aware that you witnessed that scene back there, no?" Kakuzu interrupted her, waving back to the rocky clearing where the bounty had been murdered.

Asaki clenched her jaw and stared defiantly forward at the older Akatsuki. "Yeah. And I'm also aware that you want that bounty. Kill me, and I'll be no help to you two. I know where he's been hiding out; you don't. It's as simple as that. Play nice or you just may not get that money."

Hidan snorted. "He's the one who cares about the money. I could kill you right this second and be rid of you, you little snot," his eyes narrowed, making eye contact with the smaller Asaki.

"Go ahead_,_" her voice lowered to a mumble, "I'd welcome death right about now."

"Good thing," Hidan reached for his scythe. "'Cause you're about to meet it!" He swung the three red blades forward. In a flash, Kakuzu appeared in front of him, the skin of his forearm hardened, holding back the blades.

"Did I not tell you not to harm her? If anything happens to her, you will regret it."

Hidan hovered, breathing angrily through his nose. He jerked away his scythe and put it away. "Fine. But keep that brat away from me." He fumed to himself as he stomped forward, instead taking Kakuzu's position in the front, leaving the senior Akatsuki to trail behind the two hotheads.

They traveled in a blessed silence for a few moments. Asaki broke it, "So... I gather you're immortal, uh, Hidan, is it?" She said curiously, addressing the still simmering man in front of her.

He sniffed. "Give the girl a prize!" He threw his hands up in the air.

Asaki held back a retort. More silence. Only the singing of the birds and the shuffling of their feet could be heard. "Just so you know, I'm usually a pretty easygoing guy, right Kakuzu?"

Kakuzu mumbled from behind his mask, "Don't drag me into your cat fight, Hidan."

He shrugged. "For some reason you just rub me the wrong way. Don't take it personally if I make another attempt to take your life, alright?" He turned his head sideways, looking at Asaki from his peripheral vision. She was shaking her head.

"Maybe. You're still annoying, whether you apologize for it or not," she said pointedly.

Hidan shrugged his shoulders again. "Fine. I'm just trying to be nice so the next few days won't be a living hell. For either of us."

They fell into a comfortable quiet for a while, walking with a steady pace toward the exchange point. That body was beginning to smell in the heat of the day, and Asaki savored the moments of a headwind, when the stench was blown behind them. They hiked miles, stopping for a quick lunch under a gigantic, ancient tree.

"Wait, so if you're immortal, do you still have to eat?" Asaki asked as her back slid down the trunk of the tree, a rice ball in her hands. Hidan sat down on a rock several feet away from the tree, with Hidan across from him on a fallen tree trunk.

"Well, yeah. I may be immortal, but my body still needs nutrients for energy," Hidan explained through a mouthful of rice.

"Hm. Cool," Asaki said, at a loss for words. She glanced to Kakuzu. "So why aren't _you_ eating? Are you super-immortal or something?"

Kakuzu looked at her. "I'll eat later. Just hurry up so we can reach the exchange point before dark."

Asaki nodded suspiciously, eyeing the cloth perpetually covering his nose and jaw. "Ooookay then."

Hidan leaned over and nudged the girl. "_I_ think the only reason he isn't eating is because he doesn't want to scare you with his ugly mug." An amused smile crossed his face. "Ain't that right, Kakuzu?" He looked to Asaki.

Asaki saw his hand creeping up his leg to his hip. Before she could say anything, Kakuzu flicked his wrist and sent a shuriken flying against Hidan's cheek. "You're not so pretty yourself, Hidan."

Hidan grabbed at his face, blood running own his chin. The shuriken landed on the ground, glistening with his blood. "Damn it! What the hell, Kakuzu?" He ran his tongue over his teeth, the ones on the left scraped. "That freakin' hurt!"

The runaway's eyes were wide, hands over her mouth. She brought them down, "Do you two do this often…?" She was clearly shocked by the turn of events.

Angry eyes met each other. "Yeah, I guess you could call it often," Hidan slurred through trying to hold together torn skin. "Kakuzu? Little help here?"

The older Akatsuki member dragged himself to his feet with a sigh. "You're lucky I can't kill you," He raised his hand and gray, tentacle-like tendrils slithered out of his sleeve and implanted themselves in the form of stitched on Hidan's face.

"Whoa." That one word explained Asaki's expression. Eyebrows furrowed, nose wrinkled, and mouth open.

"Why did you think we were still partners? He's immortal and I can stitch him back up when he annoys me," Kakuzu said simply. "I'm not going to explain it further than that."

Asaki shook her head. "Whatever. I'm not gonna press."

The display had gotten rid of her appetite, and she stared at the rest of her rice ball. Hidan shoveled his down as soon as the stitches had taken their place and his cheek wasn't flapping about. Already, not two minutes later, it was barely a scar on his face. _I guess there are perks to being immortal, _she thought. She held out her half-eaten ball. "Do you want the rest? I'm not really hungry anymore." Hidan nodded thanks and ate the remnants of her lunch. She stared at her feet, wiggling her toes in her sandals.

"Finally. Let's go," Kakuzu said in his gravelly voice, picking up the dead bounty from the log and holding him over his shoulder. He began walking again, followed by Hidan and Asaki.

The sun was shining bright overhead. A few hours of walking and a bathroom break later, Kakuzu stopped in front of a small shop.

"Is this it?" Asaki asked, stepping up beside him, feeling little. They continued to walk.

Kakuzu nodded slightly. They walked around back and he laid a hand on the old wood of the side of the building. "Wait here, you two. Hidan, don't kill her." A door hidden in the wooden panels opened and Kakuzu was waved in.

"So," Hidan said, bored.

"So," Asaki repeated, and went on, "I guess ultra-fast healing is part of being immortal?" She faced Hidan and leaned against the side of the building, arms crossed.

Hidan nodded. "Yeah, I guess so," he said, running his tongue over his left cheek, which was now completely healed. It seemed as if nothing had happened at all. Only the memory of Kakuzu's outburst was proof it was real.

She reached up, stroking his faces, but feeling no scar. "Hm."

He cleared his throat awkwardly and stepped backward, out of her reach and her hand fell back to her side. "So, you're a runaway?" He didn't even give her a chance to respond before asking, "What was so bad about where you lived anyway?"

Asaki shrugged. "Nothing really, I guess. I could have lived there for the rest of my life, I just wouldn't have been happy. My dad wanted me to get married. He said I'd be useful then, since he wouldn't let me become a kunoichi." She rolled her eyes at the memories of the last few months.

"I bet he cared about you though," Hidan paused, "Pampered little princess, then?" he said teasingly and looked her up and down. "Could've fooled me. You seem like you could take care of yourself, just by looking at you."

"I _can_, that's the thing. He just doesn't see it. He doesn't want me to turn out like my mother. She could have lived her whole life camping. She didn't want to settle down, but once she met my father and I was on my way, she had to. She died shortly after I was born," Asaki explained. She kicked a stone across the small dirt path that wrapped around the building.

Hidan twitched his eyebrows and pressed his lips together. "Hn. You don't seem too worked up about it." He stepped on the rock Asaki had kicked, stopping it and nudging it out of the way.

The side of her mouth quirked upward. "Like I said, she died just after I was born. I really don't remember her. All I have to go off of is my dad and the other people in my village who knew her. She's still my idol, even though I've never met her. Am I stupid for that?" She glanced up at him, self-consciously standing straighter in an attempt to seem taller.

"Maybe not stupid. I mean, I barely knew my parents. Either of them," Hidan mumbled the last sentence and continued, "The only thing I could consider an idol is Jashin, my god. But I guess that's what makes me different from you. I don't look up to people. I'm my own person, no one can change that. I don't do anything because of or for anyone but myself and Jashin."

"Wow, Hidan. Even knowing you for just a day, I wouldn't have thought you've defined yourself so… so precisely," Asaki was genuinely surprised at his words.

He shrugged casually. "It's been like that as far as I can remember. Yeah, people tried to change me, but as I'm sure Kakuzu thinks, I'm a stubborn son-of-a-bitch," he grinned.

"Ha," Asaki mumbled with a sense of finality. Hidan got the hint and shut his mouth. He sat down on an old crate, rubbing his knees. Something of a sigh escaped his lips and he leaned back against the walls of the shop. Asaki slid down the wood a few feet away, sitting on the dusty ground. She traced a finger through the dirt absently, waiting.

-x-

Inside the exchange point, Kakuzu hauled the body onto the shelf the county collector had rolled out from the wall. After checking the identity of the dead man, he slid over a suitcase that held the reward. He counted up the notes, and closed it.

"What's the bounty for Aomizu Kiagii?" Kakuzu asked before leaving the stinking exchange point. The air reeked of dead bodies.

The bounty collector flipped through his bingo book. "Kiagii," he mumbled to himself as he turned the pages. "Ah, Kiagii, Aomizu. 25 million," he snapped the book shut. "Big catch."

Kakuzu nodded and turned to leave. From behind him, the collector called, "It was a pleasure doing business with you, as usual." Kakuzu tipped his head without turning around and left.

The wood slid silently from its place among the other panels. Hidan's ears perked and he turned his head, glancing at Kakuzu. "Finally. I actually had to be nice to her for a few minutes," he whined, jerking a thumb toward Asaki, who was sitting on the ground on the other side of the hidden door. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"No one asked you to be nice, Hidan. Just not to kill her. But I suppose in your case, that's about the same thing, now isn't it?" Kakuzu said and, without stopping, turned down the dirt path, returning to the main trail.

Hidan rose and followed his partner, as did Asaki. He flushed a bit and mumbled a half-hearted, "Yeah." It sounded as if he wanted to say more, but decided against it.

After another hour or so of walking, the sun began to sink low in the sky, dipping beneath the horizon. Stars began to dot the eastern half of the sky, with a light pink melting to dark blue on the western half. Kakuzu led them into the woods a while away and began to make camp for the night. Soon, a small, flickering fire burned in the center of their clearing.

Asaki yawned as she rolled out her sleeping mat. She sat down and took off her larger gray shirt and, folding it, put it in her bag. That left just her skin-tight dark purple long sleeved tee and revealed her thin, tiny figure.

Kakuzu stood. "I'll take the first watch, Hidan. Four hours. We leave at dawn."

Hidan nodded, scooting lower against a tree trunk. "Okay."

"Good night, guys," Asaki mumbled. She had already lain down and closed her eyes.

"Uh, good night?" Hidan said unsurely. There was no reply. She had already drifted off. Hidan ignored the lack of response and also closed his eyes, falling into sleep.

Four hours later, Kakuzu woke Hidan up with a kick to his ankle. After a moment, he mumbled, "What?" His eyelids fluttered open, purple eyes still cloudy with sleep.

"Your turn at watch," Kakuzu rumbled quietly, sitting down in front of another tree. "Keep your guard up. No daydreaming," he glanced at Asaki's sleeping figure.

Hidan's face reddened and growled back, "Yeah, right. No need to worry on that one," he blinked and his purple eyes became more alert. He stood, stretching the drowsiness from his bones. He rolled his shoulders and took up position, listening, watching.

By the time Kakuzu's head dipped into sleep, Hidan was wide awake. He glanced around the small camp. The fire still crackled, its light illuminating and heating the site. He noticed Asaki, still deep in sleep, curled up on her mat. The shadows highlighted her features.

_She looks so much more peaceful in her sleep,_ Hidan observed, almost against his will. He glanced at Kakuzu. If he caught him so much as glancing at Asaki asleep, he would never hear the end of it. _She's so much different now, than the little firebrand she is in her waking hours. _He wouldn't allow himself to put together the coherent thought, though he knew he thought it: _She's actually kind of cute while she's asleep._

He shook the thoughts away and breathed deeply, returning his attention to the forest around him.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Maybe I should just change my upload day to Saturday… I wasn't home at all yesterday, so sorry guys. This has been the longest week of my life, hands down. Anywho, hope you enjoy this chapter!

XXX

The sky was growing brighter, though the sun hadn't yet broken the horizon. Kakuzu awoke silently, standing and reaching to the fading stars that Hidan was staring up at. They made eye contact and Kakuzu swept his eyes down toward the still-sleeping Asaki. He then walked further out into the woods, presumably for a bathroom break.

Hidan groaned inwardly. He rolled his eyes and stepped around the glowing embers of the night's fire to where she laid. "Asaki," he said loudly, hoping to be able to wake her without touching her. It didn't work.

A growl came from Hidan's throat. He swooped down to shake her shoulder. "Asaki. It's nearly dawn. A mortal like you truly doesn't want to see an impatient Kakuzu, especially in the morning," he warned her.

At the touch of his hand, a hand flew up, pinning his wrist. Her eyes blinked wide open as she sat up quickly, and noticing her grip on Hidan, hastily let go. She looked up at him and said in a slightly sleepy voice, "What?"

He stared at her. "Fast reflexes much?" He raised an eyebrow. "I said it's almost dawn and that you don't wanna screw with Kakuzu in the morning. Get up and be ready, kid."

"Don't call me 'kid,'" she snapped, then mumbled as she stood, "I gotta pee." She grabbed her pack and trudged off toward the woods before Hidan stopped her.

"Kakuzu's over there; go the other way," he waved his hand as he sat down on a boulder and stared into the embers of the fire.

"Uh, thanks. That probably would've ruined my day," Asaki's eye twitched and she turned to the left, going deeper into the trees.

In the next minute or so, Hidan decided that Kakuzu would want to leave as soon as everyone was back. To save trouble, or so he tried to convince himself, he rolled up Asaki's sleeping mat and tied it. He couldn't help but breathe her scent, which was radiating from the cloth. He blocked it from the front of his mind, but Asaki's light, floral, autumn-like aroma still drifted through his nose. He held it next to him, against the rock.

A minute or two later, Kakuzu appeared from the forest. He stood opposite Hidan and stomped out the remaining cinders. Hidan cleared his throat, speaking, "Hey, Kakuzu. Just remember that little promise we made when we were assigned as partners, okay? As much as I hate the circumstances, I guess I'll comply with this one," he mumbled, trying to get his point across without making himself sound like a total idiot. Mission failed.

"It's only because you like her. Anyone with a brain could see it," Kakuzu said and Hidan pulled a disgusted face. "We're going to get a lot of money out of this deal."

"What 'little promise'? And what does it have to do with me?" Asaki spoke from her place standing a few yards away from the clearing. She had freshened up a bit, as her brown shoulder-length hair wasn't as matted as it had been when she first woke up, and the dirt had been wiped away from her face. Hidan was glad to notice that she didn't mention the whole, "It's only because you like her" part. He also noticed that not once was her name mentioned.

Hidan waved the question off. "Stuff you don't need to know about." A glare radiated from Asaki, but she didn't pursue it any further.

The sunshine spilled over the tree line, creating a pink and orange sunrise. Kakuzu stood. "Let's get going. Asaki, where might we find this bounty of yours?"

"Wow, you're... punctual," Asaki pointed out and answered his question. "Actually, he lives rather close from here. About four miles northeast." She jumped through the remaining underbrush separating her from the other two, following after them. "Wait, where's my sleeping mat?" She raised her hands, looking around as she jogged to catch up with them.

Hidan held it up. "I figured we'd get out of here faster." He glanced ahead to Kakuzu. He was ignoring them.

Asaki slowed down beside him and was about to shrug off her bag to tie it on, but Hidan stepped behind her, reaching for the dangling strings. He hastily fiddled with the ties, probably making it take longer than it had to. He stepped back. "Uh, thanks."

Hidan grunted. "If you've ever seen him in the morning, you're right to thank me," he nodded toward Kakuzu. "Then again, I could have let you hold us up and have him either kill you or severely maim you. Hm," he hummed, grinning at the image forming in his mind.

She huffed and whacked him on the arm. "Gee, thanks. I hate you too," she scrunched her eyebrows together and walked ahead of him in a simmering silence. _Violent asshole._

After a little over an hour of walking, Asaki sped her pace so she was walking parallel to Kakuzu. "We're getting close. What's the plan?"

Kakuzu replied, "Our plan is to knock on his door, kill him quickly, and get out of here and to our next target."

"Harsh," She examined the ground and scuffed the bottom of her sandal through the dust. "But okay," She looked up. "It's just up here, if I remember correctly."

"You better remember correctly," Hidan grumbled behind them. _The faster we bag this guy, the faster you leave,_ he thought sourly.

Asaki ignored him. A moment later, a small cabin came into view. She held up a finger that meant, _Wait._ Kakuzu and Hidan hopped into the trees surrounding and waited.

The young runaway walked up to the door, as if she were supposed to be there. She knocked on the door three times and waited, listening. "Aomizu? It's me, Asaki," she called out.

After a few seconds, the door opened, and their target stood there, looking down at Asaki. "I thought you were on your way to my brother in Konoha?" he questioned simply, tilting his head.

"I was," Asaki started, scratching her head. "But I ran into some friends and I thought they might be able to help you out with that dilemma you were telling me about a couple of days ago." He nodded as she spoke, one side of his mouth quirking.

As soon as she stopped speaking, Hidan and Kakuzu jumped down from their hiding place in the trees. Kakuzu glared momentarily at Asaki, then to Hidan. In a flash, the older Akatsuki hardened the skin on his arm and swiped low across Aomizu's shins, though he jumped out of the way. His forearm smashed hard against the rock, causing the ground to quake in waves.

Aomizu shaped his hands as he was in the air and he landed nicely about fifteen feet away from the cabin. Holding the last hand sign, the earth began to shake, and with a call of "Ten Blades of Destruction!" ten long, wide, metal blades rose from the ground, all hovering in a protective circle around him. Asaki backed up to the edge of the clearing, Hidan stood and watched, and Kakuzu crouched, ready, in front of him.

With a flick of his wrist, the bounty sent one of the blades flying directly toward Kakuzu, but he didn't budge and it fell, useless on the ground. As if magnetized, it flew back to Aomizu, landing back in the line of levitating swords.

Kakuzu charged quickly, but Aomizu was quicker, flipping over him and bringing two of the blades past Kakuzu. From the edge of the small clearing surrounding the cabin, standing beside Asaki, Hidan threw his scythe forward, catching the bounty slightly on the back of his calf as he flipped through the air. He still landed gracefully, and the immortal drew back the three red blades on a cord, running his tongue over the blood that dripped from the cut he'd made with a grin.

Ignoring the nick on his leg, the bounty flicked one hand forward, sending half of his ten blades flying toward Kakuzu, who lazily jumped.

The blades sliced through the air right under Kakuzu and were aimed precisely at the bystander Asaki. Her eyes widened then were squeezed shut quickly, her hands flying to her face. There was the sound of impact on skin, and she waited to feel the crippling pain that would surely kill her. Pain came, but only in the hand the hovered over her right shoulder, her arms crisscrossed, guarding her face.

"Damn it. That hurt," Hidan whined. Asaki cracked her eyes open, and she was enveloped in the shadow of Hidan in front of her, arms out, almost protectively. Four of the five blades that were sent from Aomizu jutted out of Hidan's back, two between his shoulder blades and one on either side of his lower back. Asaki cringed and grabbed at her own hand, which the fifth sword had cut open right through her palm. She wanted to scream when she saw how much blood was escaping the deep gash, but nothing came out.

The blades were pulled roughly out of Hidan's back, making him grunt. Aomizu was surprised for sure, but not fazed. He kept an eye on Kakuzu who landed off to the side a few feet. He backpedaled slowly back to Asaki's side as Hidan dragged his feet forward, shuffling around and spreading the blood that escaped from his gashes on his chest. When he stopped, the same diagram as the previous day had been drawn in blood on the ground: a triangle within a circle. His skin melted into pure black with a white pattern on his face, chest, and hands, and Asaki couldn't help but stare. He reached into his cloak, pulling out his retractable spike and clicked it open. "Close. But not quite. Preparations are complete. The ceremony may begin," he said, laughter bubbling at his throat. He raised the spear and plunged it through one hand, and Aomizu hissed, gritting his teeth with the pain. His unharmed hand grabbed at the other, blood coursing through his fingers, and the swords fell, melting back into the ground. "Oh yeah," Hidan threw his head back, closing his eyes. "Pain is the only thing that assures you that you're alive. Don't you agree?" He ripped the spear from his palm and raised it, stabbing himself in the opposite thigh, causing the bounty across the clearing to stop, collapsing under the pain. "Don't worry, I won't make you suffer too much longer. You'll soon be in the hands of Jashin, and out of mine. You won't be treated with mercy," with no further talk, Hidan raised the spike high and brought it down quickly to his chest. He dropped to his knees, then down to the ground.

Aomizu copied him, his breath failing him. Trembling, he managed a weak, "Goodbye, Asaki. Be sure to tell Hintara goodbye t..." He couldn't finish. Not a moment later, they both lay lifeless, and Hidan's skin faded back to normal.

From the side, Kakuzu took Asaki's hand in his, examining the deep cut. Tendons were cut, and bone was exposed. The girl the hand belonged to averted her eyes, not wanting to see that the horror was actually attached to her body. Tears welled around her eyes and she bit her lip hard. The gray tendrils that had healed Hidan the day before slithered down Kakuzu's arm and into her hand, reconnecting nerves and tendons and stitching the skin back together. When he looked up again, Hidan had just killed himself and their target, and Asaki stared, wide-eyed in disbelief, though she'd already seen this once before.

Hidan's body jerked and he sat up, removing the spear from his chest. "How about that, Kakuzu? Or should it be faster?" He said sarcastically and collapsed his spike and stowed it back in his cloak.

"Better, but yes. Faster would be nice," Kakuzu replied. He walked across the clearing to Aomizu's dead body, and he lifted it up, holding it over his shoulder as he did the first bounty. _Productive days,_ he commented to himself, thinking of the two bounties they were bringing in.

"Jeez, any faster and I won't have any fun at all. Forget it, I'm not slimming down my ritual anymore," he mumbled, rising to his feet. He looked over at Asaki who stood, shaking with adrenaline, with her back pressed against the trunk of a tree. "What about you?"

She drew a long breath and replied, "I'm okay. My hand's throbbing and hurts like a bitch, but I'll live. Maybe."

Hidan rubbed his chest and stomach where the swords entered and sighed.

Asaki hesitated. "Can I go look around? I think I forgot something inside a few nights ago," she stumbled over her words from her still-pounding heart as she looked at the cabin.

Hidan shrugged carelessly just as Kakuzu said, "Make it quick."

She nodded thankfully and ran across the clearing, trying not to think of the fresh blood that was beneath her feet. She eased the door open and slid through. Inside the small, one-room house, Asaki looked around. There was his desk, his bed, his small kitchen in one corner, and two bookshelves. That was about it. She walked slowly, looking at the belongings to the person she knew was a lifeless shell outside. Her good hand brushed against the short counter and then the sturdy writing desk. Her head tilted, reading the letter that he had just been writing, before he was interrupted.

_Dear Hintara, _

_I'm writing to you simply to let you know that I am sending a friend to you. She is a young one, and she's been running away from home. She's just like me- a lover of the outdoors, and a prisoner of her society. Before I get too far, I'd like you to know something. She is different from other people. In fact, we've met her before. She is the girl that caused you to turn against me. She is the one that if I know you as well as I think I do, brother, you will not have forgotten her name. By now I'm fairly sure you know who I am speaking of. She is Asaki Aikino. _

_Please treat her with care. Though I know you're a good person—far better than myself, anyway— I still feel a need to remind you. It's a brother's protocol. She's grown into fiery spirit rather than the sullen child I had remembered her as. And do yourself a favor: don't mention her height._

_Tell her of the history of her and our families if you wish; I'm leaving it up to you to judge whether she needs to know. I want you to remember that despite your feelings toward me and my actions, as your big brother, I'll always love you. Please don't forget that. _

_Also, please don't tell her of_

The letter ended there. A dozen different thoughts zoomed through Asaki's mind. How was it they had known her? It was evident that Aomizu remembered her very well, though she herself didn't. Whomever his brother, this Hintara is, must have some history with her as well. Though when could it have occurred? As she racked her memories for any possible hints, nothing jumped out at her. Whatever had happened, it broke two brothers apart, and she couldn't think of what possibly could have happened.

She folded the paper in thirds as best she could with one hand and slid it against her wrist, underneath the sleeve of her left arm, careful to avoid touching her damaged hand.

After a quick glance around, Asaki moved back to the door and back outside. With a curious glance from both of the Akatsuki waiting, she told them, "It wasn't there." _There had been nothing missing in the first place, _she admitted to herself.

If they picked up on her lie, they didn't show it. Kakuzu nodded to Asaki and Hidan. "Let's go."

Asaki sighed. Her eyes were still red around the edges and her breath still trembled. She put her good hand to her forehead, a headache pounding at her temple. She started slowly, then sped up to keep in pace with the two Akatsuki members in front of her.

"Keep your hand up, level or higher with your elbow," Kakuzu advised from his place in the front of their party.

Hidan turned and walked backward in front of Asaki. "Do you have any extra clothes or anything?"

She thought for a moment before answering, "Will a blanket work?" She nodded behind her, gesturing to her bag.

He nodded and stepped behind her, pulling a green blanket from her pack. Without saying a word, he tore off a strip from the long side, and holding it in his mouth, stuffed the remnants of the blanket back in her backpack. He stepped in front of her and they stopped, "Here," he laid the piece of cloth on her right shoulder and lifted her hair from beneath it. He pulled it under her left hand, tying it just so her wound was held just above her elbow.

"Hey! That was my blanket," Asaki whined, but when she was ignored, huffed and didn't pursue it.

It was quiet for a while, and she sighed. _Thank you guys so much. If it weren't for you both, I could very well be lying dead back there, just like Aomizu. _Thoughts such at that flew through her head all at once, and though she had an idea of what she wanted to say, she couldn't bring herself to break the peaceful silence of the late summer day.

Instead, Asaki studied the two men walking just a few steps ahead of her. Aomizu's body faced her, swinging back and forth in Kakuzu's grip. The last bounty they'd been carrying hadn't bothered her, save for the scent after a long day in the sun. But seeing the lifeless face of a person she had just stayed with not three night ago, not to mention only ten minutes ago, made her stomach swirl with unknown emotion. She figured that at least a part of the butterflies were caused due to her knowing his name. The last bounty had been nameless to her. Without an identity, the body meant nothing more than that a man had lost his life that day. It was a sad thing, yes, but people died. It was the way of life. Aomizu had wanted to die; it was one of the things they had talked about when she stayed with him those three nights ago. Asaki remembered every word clearly, and wasn't likely to forget any time soon, for she had felt almost the same way, before she escaped from her father's confinement.

-flashback-

Aomizu sat at his wooden desk, a candle lighting the paper he was writing on. A bit of his dark blue hair fell around his eyes, and he kept sweeping the few wispy hairs away from his face as he looked down at his writing. Asaki sat on the floor on her mat across from the large bed in the corner of the room. She had just finished telling him her reasons for running away and leaving home, and ended with, "I swear, now that I've seen the outside world for more than a day, I can't see ever going back. If I do..." she trailed off for a moment, "I'll just be spending the rest of my life wishing I was dead, but being too scared to show myself the door, so to speak."

The man paused his writing and turned around to face her. "You are a very intriguing young woman," Asaki felt her face heat before he continued, "You just described almost perfectly the way I've felt for the better part of my twenty-six years," he paused again, looking at her in wonder, "The only difference is that I'm ready to go any time. It's just a bit of a pride thing that I don't 'show myself the door,' as you said. I have a reputation among my family and the villages I've visited. I'm known to be a fierce fighter, but none of them know how I've been tormented by all of the things I've done in my life. If I'm leaving this world, I've promised myself, as well as my brother, that I'm going out with a bang." He stood and blew out the candle, making the room dark, with the only light coming from the moon outside, still somehow penetrating the thick clouds and pouring rain. "Besides, feeling this way won't make people remember me, not to mention that it's a sin to my religion." He crossed the room, taking a seat again on his bed. "No one knows how much we suffer, do they?" he said gently, pulling his legs underneath him, crisscrossing.

Asaki examined the floor and shook her head slowly. "Nope," she said simply. There was a moment when the two of them were lost in their own thoughts of depression, but she spoke again, "Honestly, though. I'd enjoy life- love it, even- if I didn't have to be cooped up where I have to sneak out to be outside. I love the outdoors. I would never think of death at all, if I were allowed under the open sky." She lay down on her side, facing the wall. "I know my father would be devastated if anything ever happened to me, and that he only tried to keep me sheltered from the world was to avoid what happened to my mother happening to me. That's all I know; I don't know the details, which really kinda pisses me off."

"I know that would upset me, I don't blame you. But I can't escape from the things I've done. Honestly, about now, someone would be doing me a favor by ending my life," Aomizu spoke softly as he looked around in his small, one-room cabin. There was another brief silence. "...Miss Aikino? May I ask you a question?"

She rolled over, now facing Aomizu who was still sitting on the bed. "Just Asaki is fine. What's on your mind?"

"Asaki," He took a breath. "Why do you trust me? I only just met you this morning. Why do you trust me to tell your innermost thoughts to, to spend the night in my home?"

Asaki bit her lip. "I have good intuition, or so I've been told. I can tell when a person is sincere, when they have good intentions, or when they have evil thoughts and I may be in danger. It's one of the reasons my father trusted me so much. Like one time when I told him I wasn't comfortable with one of my guards. It turned out he was a spy for an assassin, doing some recon before the assassin himself came after my father and me. We were in something of a position of power in my village. Anyway, I felt you were a good person, despite the shadows of your past. I knew you wouldn't hurt me," she paused, "And I felt that you would listen to me, unlike the previous people I've met."

Aomizu breathed out of his nose. "I see," he said simply and lay down, placing his hands behind his head. He cleared his throat, "Well then, good night, Asaki."

"Good night, Aomizu. Thank you," she mumbled, her eyes already closing.

"Any time, Miss Aikino. Any time."

-/flashback-

Asaki snapped out of the memory with a blink. She still thought of Aomizu, _He's not any happier now, I'd bet. He said he did some bad things in his life, but what could be so horrible that he'd want to die to escape it?_ She thought of freedom, of her want, her _need_ to be in nature. Things could always be fixed, right? If you're confined, break out, she figured. _I guess it wasn't so easy for him to escape from his mistakes. At least I did him the one favor he wished for most. _She subconsciously felt the paper in her sleeve.

She shook the thought away, instead looking to the bright blue sky, and her spirits were lifted. Puffy white cumulus clouds were scattered here and there, and a flock of birds hopped to the next tree. Things were looking up. What she'd do if the two rather imposing men kick her out of their party, she didn't know. With just one hand to work with, she wasn't sure she would be able to make it to Aomizu's brother in Konoha as planned. She'd need help, at least in the next week or so, while her palm healed.

She looked at the black cloaks and red clouds in front of her. The taller one, Kakuzu, scared her. She didn't sense the same caring aura that she had with Aomizu. He most definitely would inflict damage on her, if allowed to. Though she knew nearly nothing about him, she felt that he was a hard nut to crack, and probably wouldn't be buddies with her anytime soon.

Asaki's eyes moved to Hidan. He had mixed signals. If a good aura was blue and a bad red, Hidan's would be purple. He's more than capable of harming people, as she had just witnessed. But it seemed as if he had something of a soft spot for Asaki, whether it was that he felt pity for her or that he was simply fond of her. She couldn't tell which, but whatever it was, he didn't seem too willing to hurt her, physically, anyway. He was an odd character, driven by his own ways and religion, which she also knew very little about. She made a mental note to herself to ask him about it later.

For the rest of the hour or so walk back to the exchange point, Asaki was lost in thought. About halfway there, the sun reached its peak in the sky. Heat pulsed through her and she put her hand to her forehead again, then to her cheek, cooling her burning face. The headache was just a dull ache now. Without warning, her knees gave out and Asaki crumpled to the ground, slipping into unconsciousness.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Yay, I remembered! Happy Friday everyone! ;) Enjoy, and be sure to leave a review; Y'all know they make my day. ;)

XXX

When she came to, she found her head bobbing against a black cloth to a set of footsteps. There was something supporting her underneath her knees and her upper back, as if she were being carried. Her eyes cracked open, and her headache was back full force, pounding at her skull and forcing her eyes closed again. She moaned in pain, leaning farther into the darkness of the cloth.

"Hey, you're awake. What happened?" A voice asked abruptly, barely giving her a chance to clear her mind and sort out her thoughts. When she didn't reply, the voice stopped with a short breath of a laugh, "Oh. Sorry," it apologized mockingly.

_Hidan's on the other end of that voice,_ Asaki's first thought came clear, and the rest followed in unison. Every detail of Aomizu's cabin and her recent adventures returned to her at once. She kept her eyes closed, but replied shakily, "I don't know."

She felt grass, then hard ground on her head followed by the rest of her body as Hidan's hands retracted from underneath her. Her gray eyes squinted open slightly again, but this time the pounding in her head was bearable. She tried to sit up, and the blood rushed from her head.

"Unless you want to pass out again, I'd suggest you stay down," Kakuzu growled.

Asaki dropped her shoulders back to the earth. "What just happened?"

"That's what I just asked you," Hidan said testily.

Kakuzu stood impatiently, still toting a dead Aomizu over his shoulder. Asaki shuddered at the sight, even though she had been watching it as they walked for the last hour. That reminded her. "How long was I out?" She asked, blocking the sunlight with one hand.

Hidan fell back onto his haunches. "Not too long. Maybe fifteen minutes or so."

"Long enough that I'm starting to get annoyed," Kakuzu warned harshly. Hidan brushed him off with a roll of his eyes. Kakuzu caught it. "I've nothing to gain from you now," He said, glare obviously aimed at Asaki. "I could kill you right now without a second thought. Hidan, carry her so we can keep going, or you're in charge of burying the body." He turned and continued walking.

"Okay, okay, jeez. I'm not getting dirt under my fingernails, damn it." He scooped Asaki up again before she could protest and her head spun with the sudden gain of altitude, if only by a few feet. Hidan grumbled to himself, "It's a bitch to get out."

He jogged to catch up with his partner.

Asaki noticed the necklace hopping around Hidan's heck. She picked it up in one hand and looked at it. It was the same shape he had drawn in blood back at Aomizu's. "What is this?" She asked curiously.

He glanced down at her. "That's the symbol of Jashin, my god! I use that to pray to him before a kill. Jashin is the mighty—"

"Hidan, shut up." Kakuzu interjected, obviously having heard this speech too many times.

"I was just educating the poor girl! She doesn't know the glory of Jashin!" He shouted at Kakuzu.

"Keep talking and your head will no longer be attached to your body."

"Humph." He pressed his lips closed and readjusted his grip on the runaway he was carrying.

"Hey, be careful where you put your hands," Asaki chided.

"Sorry," Hidan moved his arm up under her knees. "Don't blame me when you can't feel your feet."

Asaki stared at the slowly passing trees on either side of the pathway. She lost herself in her thoughts, mesmerized by the rhythmic bumping of her shoulder into Hidan's chest with each step. She shivered. Again. And again. Her core was shaking every few seconds uncomfortably, and she felt acid at the far back of her throat. The runaway closed her eyes and did all she could to will the shudders to vanish.

Hidan noticed not too long after they began. "Uh, Kakuzu, she's shaking," He said warily, not quite sure what to do.

The elder Akatsuki member stopped and looked at Asaki. He pulled her left hand from her crossed arms and unwrapped the bandages. The cut was bright red and pus seeped into the bandage. Asaki opened her eyes for a moment and glanced up between the two Akatsuki members when Kakuzu put a cold hand to her burning forehead. "She's feverish."

"B-but I'm freakin' f-freezing," Asaki complained through clenched teeth.

Her hand throbbed to the rhythm of her heart and she relaxed a bit as Kakuzu cleaned it up and wrapped it again. "That's a bit better," She swallowed as another tremor racked her body. "I'm still freezing, though."

"Well you got a jacket or something? This one's getting impatient," Hidan nodded in Kakuzu's direction.

Asaki nodded. "In my bag."

Hidan set her on her feet and she closed her eyes and put a hand to her forehead. He shrugged her bag from his shoulder and held it out. She undid the tie with her one good tie and rifled around until she pulled out a black jacket. She tugged in on and zipped the collar up to her chin. It looked like it was too big for her and it hung from her small frame. The runaway took her bag and slung it over one shoulder, then readjusted her sling. "I think I can walk now. Thanks."

Kakuzu had already turned and continued down the pathway. The other two members of their party followed behind at a slightly slower pace.

Finally, the small shack came back into view. Two men stood at a bulletin board at the front. One tacked a paper onto it and the other swung his head to look in the direction of the footsteps he heard. Asaki's eyes widened and she slowed, circling around Hidan and trying to obliterate her from the view of the men.

The immortal raised an arm and looked at her. "What are you doing?"

"Just shut up, they can't see me!" She hissed and nodded at them.

Hidan glanced at them at the same time one shouted. "Hey!"

He raised an eyebrow at them and moved in front of Asaki. "What are you looking at?" Kakuzu walked on ahead, into the shop this time.

One of them started forming hand signs and said, "That's Miss Aikino! Hand her over!"

Kakuzu paused in the doorway and turned his head back to the pair on the deck. He swung a hand around the doorframe and the two men were knocked off their feet. They landed a short ways from the shack, unmoving.

Asaki crept out from behind Hidan. "Did you kill them?"

"No, they're just unconscious." Kakuzu said, glancing at the poster on the cork. He looked at Asaki, then back to the paper. He continued into the exchange point with Aomizu's body. "Wait here."

Hidan and Asaki took a seat on the wooden stairs leading up to the deck before the shop. She stared at the unconscious men and shivered again. She shrunk in her coat and brought her knees up to her chest.

"So who are those guys, anyway?" Hidan asked, distracting her from her thoughts.

"Uh, nobody."

"Well, they look like _somebody._"

"Family friends," she replied cryptically.

Hidan leaned back, stretching. "I get it, I get it. You don't want to tell me. Are they secret lovers?" He asked, smirking.

Asaki gaped at him. "No! God, you're such an idiot," she grumbled.

"Oh come on. You're what, seventeen? What cute seventeen-year-old girl _doesn't_ have guys chasing her down like ninken?" He rolled his eyes at her.

"Cute? You think I'm _cute?_" Asaki raised an eyebrow at him and regarded him with amusement.

He tipped his head to the side. "What? I'm not gonna lie."

"Oh, if only Kakuzu heard you say that…" Her voice trailed off.

"So you already picked up on the fact that he likes to annoy me."

"It seems mutual, actually," Asaki clarified. She glanced at the men again, but looked back to Hidan. Specifically, his necklace. "Quick, before he comes back. Tell me more about Jashin. I'm curious."

His eyes lit up and soon, there was nothing that could stop his excited speech. Multiple times, he waved his hands around and looked to the sky. The runaway watched him, barely stifling a giggle at his oh-so-religious antics, especially when she took into account what he was actually talking about. It seemed humorous that such an oddball would be worshipping one of the most gruesome gods she'd ever heard of.

"So, you use that to pray to him?" She pointed at the circular pendant on the pearl chain.

"That's right."

Kakuzu appeared again from the shack and walked straight between the two. "Come on," was all he said.

"Where are we going?" Asaki asked curiously. _Hopefully south,_ she thought.

She was wrong. "The Hidden Cloud. We've got business up there."

Asaki paused. "Really?"

"Yes."

She hesitated, but followed Hidan as he dragged himself to his feet to trail his partner. "And I'm coming along?" She jogged to catch up to them and fell into step beside them.

"What, you've got a problem with the Cloud?" Hidan asked, amusement playing in his voice.

"Nope, not one," Asaki said, stuffing her hands in her pockets. She sighed, and her mind began to wander in the silence.

"Good," Kakuzu growled, "Because we're taking you back to your father."

Asaki froze. "No, I can't go back there!"

"Trust me, you're going back, or I'll let Hidan kill you."

She looked up to the silver-haired man beside her. "You wouldn't kill me, would you Hidan?"

He glanced at her, but before he could answer, Kakuzu added, "If he wouldn't, I'd kill you myself, then him." Asaki shivered.

Okay, so maybe escape wasn't an option. She'd go along, if only to come out in one piece. Then she'd just have to escape that hellhole again. Surely her dad would have a more strict guard after the first attempt, but she'd make it. She hoped. "Okay," she conceded, "Don't kill me, either of you. I'll go."

"You say that as if you had a choice in the matter," Kakuzu rumbled.

"Right." Asaki clicked her tongue. She took a deep breath and stared at the dusty ground before her as she walked.

The fire crackled quietly in the center of their campsite. It was Hidan's turn at first night watch and he sat, back to a tree trunk, looking up through the trees to what stars were visible on the breezy, overcast night.

Asaki sighed and propped her head up with her good hand and stared into the flames. "I can't sleep," she stated simply.

To her left, Hidan kept gazing upward. "Still a little shaken from earlier?" She nodded.

She sat up and crossed her legs. At the first gust, she shivered. "It's chilly, too." She put her nose to the wind, inhaling the scent of the coming fall. Sheltering her bandaged hand in the sling as best she could, Asaki stood, stretching her right arm up to the clouded sky. She instinctively paced silently back and forth around the fire, getting her blood running a bit faster to warm her up. Hidan looked at her from his seat on the ground, violet eyes searching.

Asaki caught his stare. "What?" she asked, eyebrows drawn together.

He shook his head. "Oh, nothing." He looked off into the woods, on guard like he was _supposed_ to be.

Asaki eyed him, and something occurred to her. She cocked her head and stepped around the fire. "Hey Hidan, what's with the matching cloaks?" She sat down next to him and picked up part of his sleeve, rubbing it between her fingers. "Wow, this is actually a lot softer than it looks."

"Yeah, I know, that's what I said," He kept looking at the trees, and—coincidentally—away from Asaki.

"_Hidan._" His head snapped around and she craned her neck to see the left side of his face. "Your face is completely healed. That's amazing."

"Not really."

"Says the immortal one. Alright, now surprise me." She crossed her ankles in front of her. "How old are you?"

Hidan looked at her. "Twenty-two."

"Ah, yes, but how long have you _been_ twenty-two?" She looked at him as if she had just uncovered a big secret.

He paused, thinking for a moment, "About two months?"

"What?" Asaki looked confused for a second. "Really?"

"Hey, don't blame me. I may have infinite years ahead of me, but I've only been immortal for a few years. It's like me asking you how long you've been—sixteen, right?"

"Seventeen."

"Ah, whatever. Either way, it doesn't make sense. Now _Kakuzu,_" He lowered his voice, looking over at the sleeping figure against the tree, "I wouldn't be surprised if he used to ride a dinosaur to school as a kid. The guy knew the first Hokage from the Hidden Leaf."

Asaki's eyes widened as she glanced at Kakuzu. There was a slight rise and fall to his chest and his headband was pulled down over his eyes. "Seriously? I knew you guys were weird, but you two are like—like—"

"The zombie combo. At least, that's what one guy we know calls us. It's more accurate than most things people have called us, actually," He reasoned, tossing his head to the side. His silver, slicked-back hair flipped too, only to be blown back in place by the wind.

"And what have other people called you?" The runaway crossed her arms, trying to conserve heat.

"Monsters."

"Well, that seems almost as accurate…" She grinned, shrugging her shoulders at his look. "Well, it is."

"Thanks," He exhaled with a roll of his eyes. He looked out to the woods again.

Asaki noticed a bit of disappointment in his attitude. "I'm sorry. It's just, it's not every day you see some guy kill another—by killing himself. You have to admit that can be a bit scary." He ignored her. "But hey, at least I'm still around. If I weren't being brought back to my father, I might actually consider sticking around with you guys," She looked to the fire.

From the corner of her eye, Asaki saw Hidan turn his head toward her again. "No, you don't want to do that."

"Why not?" She met his eyes. "You seem pretty nice for the most part. As long as you don't do that whole Jashin-curse-thing on me, I think we could stay on good terms."  
>"It's not me I'm worried about," He nodded to Kakuzu. "He'd kill you the moment he doesn't need you. That's just who he is: only in for the money. The guy is one big ball of sin. Jashin will punish him thoroughly, if he ever gets to meet him." Asaki followed his gaze. "Besides," he added, "I have to pray to Jashin for forgiveness just to <em>not<em> kill you. I mean, I don't want to, but the commandments are strict: complete and utter destruction and death. Sorry kid, but the only way you're getting out of this alive is to run back to your daddy."

"_Asaki, _not _kid._ But is it really that bad, you _not_ killing me?" She raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I figured that about Kakuzu, but I'm really in that much danger around you two?"

"Yep. Sorry to burst your bubble, _Asaki._"

There was a brief silence. "Question." Hidan looked at her. "Don't you have to pray for forgiveness because you physically _can't_ kill Kakuzu?"

They glanced in unison at the eldest of their party. "Well, yeah, but—"

"Then can you resist killing me, too?"

He sat back against the tree. "I don't see why you're thinking so much about this, anyway. You're going back to the Cloud, the old geezer" he jerked a thumb at Kakuzu "gets his damn money and I don't have to sin anymore." Asaki stared at the crackling fire dejectedly. "Besides, what makes you think you'd be wanted around here, anyway? We've got places to be and things to do. As Kakuzu'd say, you're just a burden."

Her jaw worked. "What if there was a way I could help you?"

Hidan rolled his eyes. Exasperation seeped into his voice, "For the love of Jashin, why are you so bent on following _us?_"

She bit her lip. "I don't know. I guess I just like the idea of having an immortal body guard, really. I mean, you saved my life earlier! If you hadn't been there to take those blades, I'd be as good as dead and you'd be down a couple million ryo." The immortal rolled his eyes again at the mention of money. "Why did you do that anyway?"

Hidan tapped his knee. His hand turned upward unsurely. "I don't have to explain my actions," He said with a sniff.

Asaki stood and walked around the fire. "Fine. I'll leave and be out of your hair." She lay down and pulled what was left of her green blanket over her. "Sorry for being such a burden to you guys."

Hidan sighed and returned his attention to the forest around them.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Happy Friday, as well as February vacation to anyone who has the good fortune to have it. I do! Hope you enjoy this chapter; reviews make my day!

XXX

Kakuzu kicked Hidan in the head and he jerked awake. "Fuck, Kakuzu!" He exclaimed angrily. He sat up, grumbling to himself.

Asaki was already up and sat on her mat, intent on tying her brown hair back in a braid. She stood up to gather up her bag and struggled with the ties in her injured hand. Eventually, she pulled the knot tight with her teeth. She left the makeshift sling off of her arm.

Hidan watched her for a moment before standing, too. The rising sun tinted the horizon pink. In no time, the camp had disappeared, and no one could tell they had even been there.

They began their long trek northeast back to the village hidden in the clouds. Asaki sped up the pace of her shorter legs to walk beside Kakuzu. She looked up at him. "So you're immortal too?"

"Do you have something against silence?" He rumbled.

"No, I have something against ignorance. I like knowing what's going on." She stuffed her right hand into her pocket and glanced at Hidan behind them.

Kakuzu simply stared forward. Asaki went mute.

The sun climbed through the sky. When it hovered high above their heads, signs of life began to show. A small shop appeared on the side of the road, and Asaki's eyes lit up when she realized what it was. "Ramen shop!" Her stomach growled in excitement.

Hidan came up between Kakuzu and Asaki. "Aw man, about time. I'm starving. Let's stop for a bite, eh, Kakuzu?"

"That would be a waste of time and money."

"Oh, calm your nerves. In exchange for this, I'll—Next time I get to kill someone, I won't complain about you screaming at me to hurry it up. Deal?" He looked expectantly at his partner.

"Make it the next ten times and you've got a deal. Just don't take forever," He conceded.

"Yeah!" Asaki hopped up onto the stool outside.

Hidan took a seat next to her, and Kakuzu reluctantly lowered himself onto the stool beside his partner. "This is the least profitable thing I have ever done with you, Hidan," He said sourly. He was ignored. Soon, two bowls of ramen were being cooked.

"Are you sure you eat at all?" Asaki looked past Hidan and raised her eyebrows at Kakuzu.

"I'll eat later."

"Alright, alright, whatever you say."

A few minutes later, and a pair of piping hot bowls of noodles and broth were placed before Hidan and Asaki. Hidan snapped his chopsticks apart and began to devour his ramen.

Asaki had a bit more trouble. "Are you a lefty or something?" Hidan asked after several moments of watching her struggle.

She gave a nervous laugh. "Uh, yeah. Don't worry, I've got this." She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. She held up her left hand and feigned as if she were holding chopsticks as best she could. In her mind, she mimicked that with her right hand. She opened her eyes and tried again. Though she still got drops of broth speckled down the front of her jacket, it seemed to work.

Hidan watched with amusement. "Well this is entertaining," he said, pushing back his empty bowl.

She looked up at him incredulously. "You're _done?_" She looked down at her bowl, with scarcely three bites taken out of it.

"Need help?" He eagerly eyed her remaining noodles.

"Back off, you pig. This is mine," She clumsily ate the rest of her bowl until only the broth remained. "Mm, the best for last," she placed the bottom of the bowl on the back of her left hand and steadied it with her right. She sipped down the flavorful broth.

"You don't know how nice I'm being right now," Hidan mumbled, fingers itching to just tip the bowl ever so slightly.

Asaki glared at him. "Get away from my ramen."

"Jeez, you take your ramen seriously!"

"I generally take my food _very_ seriously. At least, until I'm full or somebody happens to get their face torn apart and in turn spoil my appetite completely." She slid the bowl back and offered a smile to the cook. Kakuzu paid the bill quickly and they set off once more.

Hidan glowered a bit. "That wasn't my fault."

"It kind of was. You were the one being an asshole," Asaki reminded him with a point of her finger.

"I'm beginning to like this girl," Kakuzu commented. "She sees you for what you are."

"Oh, ha-ha. _You're_ the asshole around here," his partner said, acid in his tone.

"Can't we just say we're _all_ assholes and just move on?" The runaway offered.

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Okay," Asaki said, satisfied. "But you're the biggest," she added on under her breath with a smirk.

She burst out laughing as he babbled incoherently for a moment before actually forming words, "You little bitch! Shut the hell up; you don't know a thing about me! I am not an asshole, _you're an asshole!" _A vein on his forehead bulged.

"Hidan. Shut up." The eldest growled as he came to an abrupt stop. Hidan whipped around and glared at his partner. From behind his mask, Kakuzu murmured, "We've got visitors."

Asaki's smile faded and she inched closer to Hidan as he looked around.

"Shit!" Somebody swore softly from the treetops. They fell silent when Kakuzu turned to stare directly at them.

In a flash, the older Akatsuki member rammed his fist into the ground. It disappeared into the dirt. It reappeared behind the tree, driving a young Cloud genin's head into the bark of the branch he was standing on.

Hidan snorted. "Newbies."

Asaki looked around Hidan. "Don't kill them, Kakuzu," she said, desperation sneaking into her voice.

Kakuzu hesitated, though he didn't look in her direction. In that slight hesitation, a jounin appeared from nowhere and toted the genin off, hoping through the trees. They didn't give chase.

"Well now they'll know we're coming," Kakuzu growled, mostly to himself.

"Eh, don't worry," Hidan said, waving the two Cloud ninja off. "It's not like they know who we are. And if they do, we'll just use a transformation."

Asaki crept from behind the younger immortal. "Sorry." She looked forward, where the two ninja had disappeared to.

"What, did you know them or something?" Hidan asked, following her gaze.

"Not by name, but I had seen them around. I guess my father sent in a mission for my return…" She trailed off.

"Keep going. We'll be there soon enough," Kakuzu prompted as he moved ahead.

Sure enough, the tall, imposing walls of the Cloud loomed on the horizon. Before they came into view of the guards, Kakuzu pulled them of the side of the road for a moment. "They've already seen us. Get into a disguise, Hidan," He ordered the other immortal ninja.

"Yeah, yeah." Hidan put his hands together in a hand sign. "Transformation jutsu!" His usually pale skin and hair darkened. Asaki choked back a gasp, trapping it behind her hand. The immortal had transformed into Aomizu Kiagii.

The runaway cuffed him over his now slightly shorter head and snapped at him, "Why would you do that, you ass!"

"Oh, come on. You should have guessed by now I like to get a rise out of people," Aomizu's smooth voice was marred by the habitual sneer of Hidan's speech. He grinned.

Before Asaki could respond, Kakuzu's echo of Hidan's technique caught her attention. When she looked at the elder Akatsuki member next, he had morphed into a young man with spiky brown hair. He rotated his jaw, as if it were stiff. The mask was gone. Asaki quirked her lip, thinking to herself, _in this form, he's not all that bad-looking._

"Well, haven't seen you in _that_ form for a while," Aomizu-Hidan commented.

Asaki examined the pair. _Well, this would be interesting._

The guard at the front gate glanced between the three. "Business?"

"We're returning Miss Aikino to her father," Kakuzu said, his voice slightly less gravelly. He tugged a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his blue-purple pants and handed it to the guard. He nodded and the gates opened, allowing the party into the city.

Asaki led them absently through the Cloud, back to her home. When Asaki stopped, Hidan ogled at the elegant house before him. "Jeez."

"I know."

"Ooh, a dango stand…"

"You have the attention span of a goldfish," Asaki growled under her breath as Aomizu-Hidan wandered off, following his nose to a small stand selling the delicious dumplings. Her eyes narrowed as the proprietor of the shop smiled and waved at her.

Kakuzu knocked on the door. The door eased open and a servant's face was revealed. When the older lady's eyes set on Asaki, her heightened pulse was almost palpable. She immediately spun with a sharp call of, "Mister Aikino! It's Asaki!" As footsteps began to thunder down the stairs, the servant turned and said to them, "Please, come inside!" and she and Kakuzu stepped into what appeared to be the family room.

Asaki's somewhat plump, short father appeared around the corner and grabbed his daughter in a bone-crushing hug. She squeaked and hugged him back. "Hi, Dad."

"Oh my gosh, Asaki," He breathed as he released her. He too Kakuzu's hand with both of his and shook it roughly. "Thank you, thank you a million times, sir!" His mustache twitched as he spoke, giddy with happiness from his reunion with his runaway daughter. Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at him, but nonetheless stood out the handshake.

Asaki pulled her sleeve over her hand and put her head down as he shouldered through a couple of servants and up the stairs. She closed the door of her room behind her with a smart _snap_ and threw her bag on the floor. She rolled onto her bed and stared at the ceiling, listening to the bustle downstairs.

"I'm so thankful for her safe return, thank you so much. Oh! The reward!"

Asaki snorted. It sounded as if she were a mere pet that had gotten lost.

"Thank you," Kakuzu said with a bow as he accepted the cash.

There was another knock on the door. "Oh, if you'll excuse me," Asaki's father hopped over to the door and eased it open. Aomizu-Hidan on the opposite side picked some remaining dango from his teeth with a finger from one hand and waved with the other. He met eyes with his partner inside. "Hey Kakuzu, you almost done here?"

Asaki's father stopped in his tracks and his eyes filled with hatred and fear as he stumbled backward. "You!" He hissed. A servant with dark hair and a somber expression stepped in front of Aomizu-Hidan. He aimed a firm, chakra-charged hand at his stomach, and the immortal flew back, landing on his backside among a few empty crates across the path.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **This chapter's definitely the most violent of what I have out so far, just a fair warning now. :) As you may have noticed, I'm going to be switching to every other Friday for updates, so y'all will have to wait just that much longer, sorry!

Reviews very much make my day! Enjoy!

XXX

"What the hell?" Aomizu-Hidan stood, brushing off his behind and swearing up a storm. Kakuzu raised an eyebrow from inside.

Asaki sat up abruptly when she heard the crash and swearing she knew to belong to Hidan, though still disguised in Aomizu's smooth voice. She stood slowly from her bed and crept quietly across her room. She pressed an eager ear against her door, listening.

"What the hell was that for, asshole?"

Asaki's father scoffed indignantly. "As if you don't know. _You_, Aomizu Kiagii are never welcome in this house – or this village—again! How dare you show your face after so many years?"

The girl wrinkled her nose. Her father knew Aomizu? Even worse, Aomizu was on her father's _bad_ side. He had done something to him in the past to warrant his hatred. On top of it all, he had left the village, earning his banishment from the Cloud. She listened for any servants still milling around her door, but they all seemed to be wrapped up in the sudden commotion. Asaki slipped out of her room and peeked down the stairs.

"What the—_oh._" It finally dawned on Hidan that he wasn't in his usual body. He had been unwise in choosing a disguise for this certain endeavor. "Remind me what I did again?" He asked with his average sneer, playing the part of the guilty exile.

"You know damn well! You were an accessory in an assassination attempt on myself and my little girl!"

Asaki blinked. The fact that her father just swore tripped up her thinking process, but once it cleared, she was even _more_ dumbfounded. That guard that she had been uneasy with, the one acting as a spy… that was _Aomizu?_ It was all a bit much to take in at the moment, so she decided to shirk those thoughts, leaving behind the pure instinct of escape and evasion.

"I see you remember." Aomizu-Hidan acted along, narrowing his brown eyes. He squared up to the servant, chancing a glance at Kakuzu behind him. The elder rolled his eyes impatiently. He pushed by Asaki's father easily, but the first servant was tougher. Unfortunately for the servant, who now sported a broken arm, Kakuzu had his own methods of plowing through those obstinate enough to block his path.

Kakuzu latched onto Hidan's arm and tried to pull him away, but another servant pounced, trying to land a punch to the back of the immortal's head. He drew back a set of crushed knuckles. Hidan whined, "Hey, come on! That guy knocked me over! I've _gotta_ kill him now,"

He resisted being pulled, only to receive a rather curt knock to his head. "Lunch?"

"Hey, I said next time I kill somebody! I don't think I killed anybody yet, now did I?"

"You may not have, but I'm about to if you don't shut up."

Asaki's father looked around frantically. "Get them! Kill them! Make sure they do not get away with this!" A few servants followed them out, while another one ducked away to retrieve some backup.

Three of the Aikino family's nin-servants landed directly in front of the pair of immortals. Kakuzu, with an aggravated sigh, dropped Hidan. "_Thank_ _you!_" He said exasperatedly, rubbing his arm. He reached behind him for his scythe, but realizing it wasn't there, he casually hooked his hands behind his head.

Asaki ran back to her room and grabbed her bag. She hated doing this to her father, but if there was some way she could follow them… She watched carefully from the stairway for a moment before dashing down the hall. They were taking the fight outside, and the servants unwisely left the young runaway alone.

"Let's go. This is more trouble than I'm willing to go through right now," Kakuzu growled, ready to knock the other immortal out and carry him across his shoulders like a dead man. _He might as well be._

Hidan glanced back at the servants hesitantly observing their actions. Reluctantly, the silver-haired man growled back. "Fine. Jashin will make you pay for this, though," He warned gravely before they took to the air.

Asaki climbed out the window leading onto the roof of the first floor. She paused, setting her footing on the slanted surface, and watched as the pair of immortals hopped over shops, homes, and other buildings all the way across the Cloud until they stood on the outer walls. She gritted her teeth and set out in their footsteps, glancing on last time at her home. "I'm sorry, Dad."

The two Akatsuki members looked back over the Cloud one more time. Kakuzu turned to leave the village, but Hidan stopped him with a nudge of his elbow. "Hey!" He pointed out to the rooftops, where there was the scarce shadow of a person running and jumping. "Is that…?"

Kakuzu followed his line of sight. "Could be." He put his hands together and with a _poof_, reverted to his normal body.

Hidan nodded and did the same. "But if it is, we can't just leave her."

"Watch me." He hopped off the wall and onto the surrounding rocky ground. "Besides, we've got a two-tails to catch. We can't be hindered by your pathetic crush."

The other immortal simmered. "She's not a damn _crush._" He narrowed his eyes at Kakuzu. He braced himself to jump from the Cloud to the mountains, and he glanced backward. The figure jumping over the village tripped and skidded across the rooftop she was currently crossing. A tad more than halfway from her home to the wall, Hidan watched intently as Asaki made no move to rise. Two black figures, presumable servants, took off from the Aikino home toward the girl.

"_Hidan._"

The silver-haired man glanced between his partner and the runaway and before Kakuzu could beckon him again, he thrust himself back into the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

_Why the hell am I doing this?_ He asked himself as he sprinted over the town. He couldn't find an answer before he approached Asaki, curled up in a ball and holding her hand. "Asaki!" With tears of pain in her eyes, she glanced up at him and her heart skipped a beat.

Hidan crouched beside her. The gash from the previous day was open again, and blood oozed between Kakuzu's stitching. He craned his neck around a sign on the roof and his eyes widened when he found only a few rooftops between them and the ninja servants. He grunted as he picked the girl up and swooped to his feet shortly before charging in Kakuzu's general direction.

Asaki clung to him, pulling her hand in close to her body. He kept glancing over his shoulder at the approaching ninja. Hidan landed on the stone wall and placed Asaki on the ground before turning to face the two servants, drawing his scythe. "Come here." He challenged them outwardly.

The servants hesitated. "Who are you to kidnap Miss Aikino? Why do you want her?" One asked bravely, stepping slightly ahead of the other.

Hidan threw a quick glance at the quavering girl, before he realized he wasn't in the same form as he had been when they had first returned her. His mind worked quickly. "I'm a friend. She _doesn't_ want to be here. You guys are just too thick-headed to understand that," He ran toward them with a grunt and swiped at their feet with the blood red scythe. The three-pronged weapon sailed beneath them as they sailed through the air. Hidan threw the scythe after them, hooking it around one's foot. He pulled it back with the cable, and the ninja tumbled disgracefully from the sky, blood streaming from his ankle.

Asaki shrank back on the wall, seeing yet another display of Hidan's power. She watched wide-eyed as he licked a thick rivulet of red liquid from his blades. The uninjured servant scrambled to catch the other, and he laid the other on the roof. Stepping in front of him, the ninja squared up to Hidan, bracing himself for a tough fight.

"Is that all you can do?" Hidan laughed incredulously. "That's laughable! Jashin will surely get a lousy couple of souls to punish today." His sight slipped focus from the servant to Asaki behind him. "It's no wonder you escaped them the first time. These guys are wimps!"

She gave a weak smile. _He actually came for me._ Thoughts of a similar origin raced through her mind as she watched on. Other thoughts, such as _Did he change his mind?_ and _Where's Kakuzu? _also flickered through her conscience. She threw a brief glance around, off the tall rock wall. There was no trace of him.

Hidan charged at the remaining servant. A wide-eyed look on the ninja's face revealed intense fear, and it was apparent he was no more than a genin. In any case, he dodged, skidding across the flat roof and halfway down the slanted eaves. He was a quick learner and knew better than to take to the air again without some trick up his sleeve.

Fortunately for Hidan, he had none. It was easy to rattle his balance and cause the servant to stumble as he jumped down on the roof with a defined _thump_. "Seriously? This was too easy," Hidan threw his head back in a bubbling laughter at the poor ninja currently dangling off the side of the three-story building.

Caught with his guard down, the servant swung himself up and in one smooth motion ran the sharp side of his kunai across the immortal's neck.

Frozen in fear, Asaki watched on irresistibly as the blood coursed down Hidan's neck with each pump of his heart. From the back, the runaway could only see the red coating the panting servant's kunai, and hear the silence aside from the heavy breathing.

"Well fuck! That hurt, you little bastard!" Hidan spun quickly, driving his scythe into the abdomen of the unsuspecting servant. Though the blades weren't intended to be deadly, the red metal pierced the skin quite easily, and the ninja found himself laid out on the roof, clutching at his gushing stomach.

Hidan smirked as he stood over his helpless victim. Throwing a quick glance at the other barely conscious servant, he drew his scythe back to his hand, tongue slipping over the red-tinted blades.

When his feet began to move and smear the blood from his own veins across the rooftop, Asaki realized what he was drawing. She followed his feet until the mark was recognizable: the inscribed triangle, identical to the one on Hidan's pendant.

"You're both pathetic," He sneered, rubbing his neck that was already beginning to heal in a bloody scab. "Just a pair of bastards who are going to be punished severely by Jashin."

Asaki gasped when she accidentally brushed her hand up against the stone wall. She leaned over it, teeth clenching tightly. Hidan's head snapped toward her and he drew the spike from his cloak. Drawing it out to his full length, the immortal met the look of fear on the one still conscious ninja's face as he held the weapon over his head. "Die."


	7. Chapter 7

Eyelids slid skyward slowly, revealing frightened gray irises. Asaki tried as hard as she could to block out the gruesome gurgling of blood at her servants' throats before they let out a defeated and final sigh. "Hidan," she breathed. The shivering picked up right where it had left off, and she trembled with both the returning fever and immense fear.

With the clearing of his throat, Hidan stood, tearing the spike from his chest. As his skin color melted back to normal, he completely ignored the two fresh bodies he just produced and set his eyes on Asaki. He strode across the rooftop until he leaped easily onto the outer wall. He crouched down beside the quavering runaway. "That's my name," He said, smirking.

Asaki let out a sigh of laughter and dropped her tired head on his knee. The immortal glanced up momentarily, but upon finding no trace of his partner, he directed his attention back to the quickly fading girl. He scooped her up by the armpits and set her on her feet. Hidan drew his still-bloody scythe from his back and Asaki took its place. Taking his weapon in his hand, he jumped onto the mountainous landscape and began to walk after Kakuzu.

"Kakuzu!" He shouted, laziness tinting his tone. He turned his head back to the fuzzy-headed Asaki, whose head rested on his shoulder. "Don't worry, once the geezer hears us, he'll stitch you back up again, you klutz," He quipped before returning his attention to finding his fellow Akatsuki. He drawled out his name, "Kakuzu!"

"Why don't I feel comforted?" Asaki still managed a weak sarcastic remark. Her nose dropped back into the crook of Hidan's neck. She murmured against his skin, "I want food."

"Once again, when we find Kakuzu. Damn it!" Hidan cursed loudly as his foot crashed into a rock he hadn't seen in his pathway. "Where the hell are you, you old geezer?"

A moment later, Kakuzu appeared from around a bluff. "Why did you go back for her?" He asked. The deep, terrifying voice jolted Asaki a bit more lucid, and she blinked at him.

Hidan glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Because I could, that's why. Why don't you just shut the fuck up and stitch her up for me, okay?" He lowered himself enough that Asaki simply slid down his back and onto her own feet. Her knees wavered and she collapsed onto a boulder.

Kakuzu's death glare didn't leave Hidan. It was a wonder he hadn't burned a hole directly through his chest by the molten fury communicated in that one look. "How dare you hold me up," He growled, and his voice increased in both severity and volume throughout that one accusation. "For a _girl?_" He spat out the last part, and Asaki looked down at the ground guiltily.

The steaming air rushing from Hidan's nose was audible as he gritted his teeth. "Easily! Jashin will smite you down soon enough. Such a fucking sinner couldn't possibly be left with sins not atoned," He warned gravely. Asaki looked up at his back, imagining clearly the triangular and circular pendant around his neck. "_Money,_" he spat, "is not important. _Time,_" he spat again, _"_is not important. Death and destruction are important, unless you pray for otherwise. I don't see anyone but me praying around here, now do I?" He waved his hands around in the air as he growled in Kakuzu's general direction.

In less than a blink of the eye, Kakuzu had already attacked Hidan. His scythe already at the ready, the elder's arm smashed against the red metal. "I'll be using your head as an ornament," Kakuzu rumbled, nose wrinkling as if the mere sight of Hidan was repulsive.

As Hidan opened his mouth to reply, Kakuzu lunged in Asaki's direction, but Hidan took his extended kunai straight through the stomach. He sputtered, blood flecking both his and Asaki's face. "Fuck you."

Kakuzu dropped his weapon and drove a hand into the ground, as he had done when he found that genin hiding in the sparse trees. His fist detached from his body, and Hidan, though still streaming blood, grabbed Asaki and leaped to the air as the hand screamed out of the rock she had previously been sitting on.

"Sorry about this. He'll calm down in a minute; just stay out of the crossfire," Hidan warned as they sailed over the cliffs. He landed on one outcropping and set Asaki on her feet.

Kakuzu jumped after them and he skidded to a halt at the top of the bluff overlooking that particular ledge. Hidan leaped to meet him.

Asaki watched on, still shaking. A few words were exchanged that she couldn't make out from the distance and in a flash Kakuzu lashed out and Hidan's head fell to the side, gushing blood. She shrieked, but when she saw the angry purple eyes and white teeth screaming at the other immortal and heard his voice echo over the rocky landscape, she sighed a breath of relief. She still had to be reminded that immortal was immortal for Hidan; physical harm meant nothing to him.

Kakuzu landed with a crunch before her. He loomed over her and she tried not to cower as his deep voice rumbled harshly, "Don't be a burden. Pay for your own meals. Don't irritate me, and definitely don't encourage that idiot." He waved at Hidan's still yelling head and his collapsed body.

"O-Okay," She stuttered before clearing her throat with a curt nod.

The elder immortal drew her quavering bloodstained hand from her stomach. He scrutinized it for a moment before extracting the previous stitches, absorbing them back into his mass.

"Ew," Asaki couldn't help but murmur through a hiss of pain. More snake-like tendrils slithered from his fingertip and imbedded themselves into her palm. He cleaned the cut up once more and wrapped it tightly. He turned to start back up the hill to retrieve his partner without another word.

Asaki collapsed in relief with a great sigh. She watched Hidan's head being lifted up by Kakuzu by the hair. She cringed, rubbing the back of her head with her good hand.

She was soon distracted by Kakuzu's stipulations. Not a burden: _that means I have to get rid of this fever and cut, and not pass out anymore,_ she thought to herself. She'd also have to find some way of income; she couldn't leech of the elder Akatsuki anymore, or face the very possible death penalty.

It was the last condition the runaway had to really think about. No encouraging Hidan? Who knew what that constituted for Kakuzu? Perhaps a comment, a look, even her simple presence could set him off!

Asaki took a steely breath and started up the bluff to rejoin her rescuer.

_This ought to be interesting._

**A/N:** Kakuzu's such a meanie. D:

So now that I have GIMP, I've been tracing over some of my old drawings and posting them on Deviant Art. As of right now, I don't have any Naruto ones up there yet, but I do have a couple sketches of Hidan, Asaki, the Kyubii, and Pain that I'll hopefully get up sometime in the near future. If you all want to see it, my username there is nearlymissed. :)

Hope you enjoyed! Reviews make my day. ;)


	8. Chapter 8

Hidan scowled at Kakuzu as they continued down their path. He snorted and rolled his eyes when Kakuzu spared the energy to glance at his partner. Asaki padded along behind them, still trembling. Her sight bounced between the two Akatsuki members. The negative energy was virtually palpable.

With another audible growl, Hidan fell back behind Kakuzu and elbowed Asaki's shoulder. "Hey, how's your hand?"

The runaway jumped. "Huh? Oh, it's better now," She rubbed a cold hand over her scalding forehead.

Kakuzu led them in a wide arc, turning back in the direction of the Cloud. A small lake appeared ahead, and upon reaching the shore, he stepped onto the surface without a second thought.

Hidan followed, before realizing the footsteps beside him had stopped. Asaki stood at the edge of the water. "Um, hello?" He stopped and looked at her. "Not a ninja, sorry."

At Kakuzu's growl, Hidan stomped back to land, scooped her up, and continued behind his elder partner. "You're one lucky gal," the immortal murmured irritably under his breath.

Asaki set her jaw and cursed under her breath. She didn't need to be a damn burden!

Hidan raised an eyebrow at her. "Colorful language."

"Shut up."

"And testy, too!"

Asaki ignored him. She stared at the palm of her good hand. Her servant—Ryo, his name had been—seemed to just charge it with chakra and rammed into Hidan. How did he do that? She tried to summon whatever chakra she felt she possessed and pushed it to her hand. Nothing happened. "Damn it," she murmured, and dropped her hand, defeated.

"What were you trying to do? Chakra control or something?" Hidan sniffed at her.

She set her jaw stubbornly, in the same manner her father had when Hidan came barging in dressed up as a supposed wannabe assassin. "Maybe."

"Well, did you expect it to work the first time? Can you even manipulate chakra?"

Asaki hesitated. "… I don't know," she admitted, "I've heard that my mother was a top notch kunoichi though." For quite a few moments, Asaki was lost in the tales she'd heard of her mother. While she wasn't as special as the two jinchuriki she knew resided in Kumogakure, her mother still had something of a reputation. Maybe not as an actual, Cloud-serving ninja, but was a wandering, autodidact rogue.

"Then it's possible." Hidan concluded with a nod. "Well, you're not getting any assistance from me."

Kakuzu mumbled from in front of them, "You barely have any chakra control yourself. It's a good thing you're not offering advice; it'd be useless."

"No one asked you," Hidan snapped, jerking his chin accusingly at his partner.

The trio fell back into silence. Asaki watched the water ripple beneath their feet with each step. She knew the basic mechanics of walking on water—all it is was precision chakra control and maintaining balance on an ever-changing surface. But when one had little to know idea where to start on even simple chakra control, it was a much, much harder than it appeared. _Someday,_ Asaki promised herself, _someday I'll teach myself how to walk on water, just like my mother did!_

No more than ten minutes later, they reached the opposite edge of the lake and Asaki took to walking again.

"So, where are we headed?"

"Northern end of the Cloud," Kakuzu answered Asaki's question.

"When will you guys be heading south again?"

"When we need to."

Asaki grumbled to herself, but bit her tongue. "Alright."

Hidan stuffed his hands in his pockets. He watched the sky and the immense puffy gray clouds that coated it. He followed Kakuzu blindly, hoping he'd know the way to wherever it was this jinchuriki they were supposed to catch was.

_Catch,_ he snorted. _Catch _implied that he couldn't kill her. To hell with that; Jashin calls for complete destruction. Simply catching the two-tails without killing her would just be a half-assed job in his eyes. Unfortunately for him, the residual ache pulsed through his cervical vertebrae. Risking his neck now, while not fatal, wouldn't be in his best interests at that moment. He rubbed the stitches beneath the Steam Village headband around his neck. _Damn Kakuzu._

Beside the mentally ranting immortal, Asaki walked along. Her eyes followed the ground, bouncing from pebble to pebble. She kicked a rock and it skittered across the path and bounced down a short gentle slope.

_Goals,_ she sighed as she attempted to gather her thoughts. _Get to the Leaf._ Her train of thought stuttered. What did she plan to do upon reaching Konoha? Ninja training? Would the Leaf accept some Cloud Village girl into their academy after living so long with no skills? As it was, she'd have to pray they would even let her into the village. As for training… _I'll cross that bridge when I get there._

Asaki glanced up. For someone as impatient as he was, Kakuzu sure didn't walk too quickly. She examined the sky. It was hard to tell through the rapidly darkening cloud cover, but it seemed as if the sun was already beginning to lean on the horizon. The air seemed unnaturally still, and Asaki took a glance around. A good kilometer from where they stood, the walls of the Cloud stood proudly. They had completely skirted the city and were directly opposite the original entrance.

Kakuzu stopped. "We'll stop here for the night. First thing tomorrow morning, we take care of our target."

Hidan collapsed onto a boulder. "Finally," He scowled.

Asaki dropped her bag on the ground and took a seat beside him. A raindrop landed square on the bridge of her nose and she blinked. "Great." Thousands of more raindrops followed in suit. Soon enough, a steady downpour soaked them all to the skin—or, whatever Kakuzu referred to his outermost layer as.

Hidan summarized each of their thoughts in one word: "Fuck."

Their heads swiveled around, searching for shelter from the growing storm. A short, loud clap of thunder echoed over the mountainous land.

"There's an overhang over there," Asaki pointed to a dry spot along a tall cliff. With a nod, their party moved up the landscape toward the plausible shelter.

Finally out of the general wrath of the rain, they began to set up a campsite once more. Kakuzu conjured a low fire as Asaki spread out her bed for the night. A small supper was passed from Kakuzu to Hidan. Where he stowed that food, Asaki didn't know—or want to.

She held her tongue and restrained herself from asking for food. She'd have to fend for herself from there on out, as Kakuzu had made very clear. Unfortunately, the small amount of money she'd earned herself was spent up on the first four days of her first escape attempt.

Her stomach growled audibly. Hidan stopped chewing his rice ball for a moment and raised an eyebrow at her. He studied his meal before seemingly reluctantly holding it out toward Asaki.

The runaway took it gratefully and with a nod. She smiled. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Asaki downed the rest of Hidan's rice in a moment.

Kakuzu stood and strolled out into the rain without warning, grasping his reward money in one hand. Asaki watched him go, mouthful of rice paused mid-chew. She swallowed hard, swiping a stray grain from her lip with her tongue. "Where's he going?"

"Don't worry about it," Hidan sighed carelessly. "He'll be back. Always is."

Asaki folded her legs beneath her. One foot rested atop her knee in a generally odd manner. A wide yawn overtook any further question or objection she may or may not have had.

"So why do you need to get to the Hidden Leaf Village again?" The immortal inquired, feigning indifference.

The shallow fire lapped up into the air ever so slightly as she stared into it. Aomizu's death flashed before her eyes once more, still fresh in her mind after scarcely two days. "You know that bounty I helped you out with?" He nodded. "I'm headed for his little brother. He lives in the Leaf, I guess, as a teacher at their Academy."

"Hn." He gazed into the night.

She shifted, staring out into the rain aimlessly as well. Asaki observed him from the corner of her eye. _He's not as mean as he tries to seem,_ she concluded to herself. _But…_

Still damp silver hair was plastered back from his face. Perpetually angry violet eyes kept guard, only highlighted by the low fire before them. Her pupils darted over the contours of his face, tracing his features while barely glancing in his direction.

_He hates me._

Asaki gave a light sigh before directing her full attention to watching raindrops cascade from the sky. _He just wants to get rid of me as soon as possible. Why aren't I gone already? Maybe… just maybe he kind of likes me? That'd be a first. _A handful of thoughts poured through her mind simultaneously. _That, or Kakuzu's a pedophile. I wouldn't doubt it,_ she chuckled to herself.

"Hm?" Hidan grunted. "What are you giggling about over there?" He emerged from his own sea of thoughts.

She shook her head. "Nothing. I think I'm going to go to bed. Bright and early tomorrow, right?" Hidan nodded disinterestedly with a confirming hum. "That guy doesn't waste any time, ever, right?"

This time, Hidan chuckled. "Nope. The bastard may as well marry a clock."

They laughed together for a moment. _Hey wait, is this fun?_ As soon as the immortal sensed anything other than loathing and contempt for the young woman, he bit his tongue. Not only would he have to eventually kill her—or be killed first—but he had a sneaking sensation that Kakuzu didn't plan on dragging her along much longer.

Swapping the bandage on her hand once more, Asaki settled in for the night, head by Hidan's feet. The constant hissing of the shower outside lulled her into a deep sleep in no time. Moments later, Kakuzu returned, suitcase of cash gone.

Hidan observed her for a moment. "Asaki…?" When he was sure there was no answer and she was asleep, the Akatsuki member directed his attention to his partner. "Why?"

"Why what?" Kakuzu muttered across the fire. "Why did I let her stay?"

"No, why don't our cloaks have butterflies and rainbows on them? _Of course_ why did you let her stay?"

The masked man crossed his arms, readying himself for the first shift guard. "She'll be gone soon enough. You don't actually think she'll stick around for more than a day, do you?" Without waiting for an answer, he said, "If her father is as dedicated as he makes himself out to be, there could be another reward for her posted any time now. We could acquire the other half of his fortune. If not in three days' time, I'll kill her."

Hidan scoffed and, shaking his head, turned away flippantly. "Of fucking course. It's always money with you."

"And for you, it's always cursing, destruction, and crushes on young Cloud girls."

Hidan barely managed to choke back an indignant scream. Instead, he snarled through his teeth, "How many fucking times do I have to say it? I have no feelings for this damned girl!" At Kakuzu's ignorant stare into the rain, he snorted again and settled himself against the wall. Without another word, he tucked his chin to his chest and fell into sleep.

…

When Hidan's turn for guard rolled around, he was as tired and cranky as he usually was upon being jerked from a pleasant slumber by the living nightmare that was Kakuzu. He complained partially out loud and partially within his own head as his purple eyes attempted to gain clarity in the damp hazy night. The rain had ceased, but was replaced with an overbearing silence. Sure, there were peepers chirping from any angle, but the lack of human-created noise was somewhat unsettling. At least, it would have been, had the grumpy immortal not conked out. His quiet snores echoed under the overhang. The glowing embers of the dying fire cast a low light over the trio, now all deeply asleep.

…

Hidan was awoken as usual by Kakuzu—being battered in some way, shape or form. He snapped to consciousness and observed his surroundings, trying to remember where he was.

"You fell asleep on guard," his partner growled.

He chuckled nervously, a thin veil of carelessness thrown over for good measure. "Guess so."

The younger immortal stood, stretching upward to press his hands on the overhang above. Only then did he notice that the sleeping mat that had been to his right was gone. "Where's the brat?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

Hidan paused. "She just left?"

"What did I say? She wouldn't hang about."

"And you're not worried about any lost money? Wow," He drawled sarcastically.

Kakuzu wasn't amused, but only stamped out any remaining embers and started back toward the Cloud. "Whatever money her father could have offered us for her a second time is made up by saved time. Move it."

Hidan lingered at the campsite for a moment, glancing around, before following his elder. Why now, after arguing so fiercely to allow her to stay, did Asaki just up and leave? He may have been missing something, but according to whatever passed as Hidan's brain just couldn't comprehend the sudden change of heart. His inner voice snorted. _Woman logic._

Still, there was something endearing about that girl that the immortal was going to miss.

**A/N:** Sorry for taking so long to update! I've been busy busy busy all last week. Only now are things starting to cool down. I just returned from Anime Boston a few hours ago, which was the best time of my life so far. xD If anyone was there, hit me up! I'm now rocking a Samehada and a T-shirt signed by Kirk Thornton and Greg Ayres, respectively.

*ahem* Otaku rant over. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I loved writing this so much. Dunno why, I just did. Anybody got any clues? I thrive off of you guys' feedback, so let me know! :D Thanks so much for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Asaki rolled over in her sleep, splaying one arm out and catching it against the rocky wall. All was silent for another moment. She twitched. Her elbow ricocheted off of the wall again and her eyes slipped open quickly at the pain.

With a gasp, what little light there was disappeared and what would have been a scream was stifled to nothing.

Time was blurred. Asaki had not the slightest idea how long she had been unconscious, where she was, or how she got there. It was complete confusion. When she came to later, the only thing she could figure out was that she was in dangerous company, tied up, and couldn't see a thing.

_Maybe I should have stayed home. All these escape attempts are getting me are knocked out and almost killed four times over. _She snorted tiredly. Asaki gave in and slumped against her bonds. She wrinkled her nose in an attempt to adjust the tightly wrapped rag over her mouth.

"Look who's awake."

Her head twitched in the direction of the deep, young voice that echoed from one end of the room. The darkness was lifted from her eyes, and after a moment, her pupils adjusted to the dim lighting of the room. She was met with a view of a tall, lean body hovering, back turned. He dropped his hands behind his head and tilted his black-haired head to the ceiling. Asaki's eyes widened curiously, taking in the image of her captor.

The tie on her mouth was loosened from behind her back. Her head whipped around, and a younger, brown-haired boy took a step back at her glare. Taking a deep breath through her mouth, Asaki demanded, "Who are you and why did you kidnap me?"

The black-haired male spun slowly on his heel and looked at her with piercingly green eyes. "You don't beat around the bush," He smirked, as if it was all some game he was playing. He turned his head away and flicked his eyes to her dramatically. "I like that."

"I don't care what you like—tell me!" Asaki swallowed. She could feel her fingers trembling behind her, but she still stared defiantly at the young man before her.

He scoffed and chuckled. "Well then." The heels of his shoes clicked rhythmically on the wooden floor as he strode casually across the room. Upper lip twitching, he gathered a handful of Asaki's hair and tugged her head back. She hissed painfully. He leaned in close to her ear and, with a voice barely above a whisper, breathed, "It was funny the first time. Now you're going a bit overboard." His fist tightened and she released a whine, tilting her head back as far it would go to compensate.

"Daisuke, stop it! You're hurting her!" A younger voice—that of the brown-haired boy—called out.

The young man—Daisuke—relaxed and released the runaway's hair from his hand. He turned and snapped at the child, "Hiro, go away!" He ran to a sliding door in the corner of the room and waved him out. The bright morning sunlight flooded the room as he opened it. "Let me do this alone. Go find Shinji or something." He slammed the door after the boy and turned back to Asaki.

"Daisuke, huh?" She asked, bottom lip still wobbling.

He took a shaking breath. "You are a _brat,_ you know that?"

Asaki could see him trembling just as she was, but from anger rather than fear. He seemed to hold some personal vendetta toward the runaway, but she couldn't figure out why. She'd never met this man before. He wasn't much older than she was—if he was at all. He was barely more than a child. Nothing about his person was familiar. How could he feel so much concentrated fury aimed at her?

She stumbled over her words. "W-what do y—how do—_what?"_

Daisuke drew a long, deep breath through his nose and his stiff, rage-filled body melted. "You had everything anyone could have ever wanted. You had a stable home, money, servants, a loving father," His sigh turned to a growl and he grabbed at Asaki's shoulders desperately. He shook her back and forth and screamed right in her face, "_And you threw it all away!"_

The brunette girl was rigid as a board. Her heart was in her throat, and the shock of the volume of his voice so close to her ears distracted her from his fingernails digging into her biceps. Her jaw went slack and her lip trembled as she tried to formulate a response. "I—" She stopped, unable to form a coherent thought.

"You _what?_" He hissed nastily. She squeezed her eyes closed.

"I—" She took a breath and relaxed. "I didn't throw it away. I traded a cramped life I had no control over for my freedom to choose my own destiny."

His hands fell and he stepped away, wide-eyed. He looked, almost horrified, at Asaki. She couldn't tell if he was ashamed of what he was doing, or whether he was just horrified with her reply. _Could be both,_ she decided.

Once again, he traveled across the room and leaned his arms against the wall over his head. Daisuke breathed heavily for a few moments before he started to chuckle. The chuckle grew to full-blown guffaws, and he threw his head back, chin to the ceiling. "What?" He whipped around and lifted his hands questioningly at Asaki, "You want to make the decision to _starve_ in the middle of _nowhere?!"_

"No! You don't know what it's like living where you have no freedom like that. I couldn't do _anything_ I wanted to do. You just don't understand," Asaki tried to explain feverishly, shaking her head throughout.

Daisuke smirked sadly at her, shaking his head. "No. _You_ don't understand what it's like to live when you can't even feed your little brothers. Have you ever tried explaining to a six-year-old that there's nothing to eat for supper? Or even lunch for that matter?" He waved his arms around dramatically, gesturing to the sliding door.

Asaki was dumbfounded. "No," She answered truthfully, eyes drifted to the floor at his feet.

"You're right. You don't."

He began to make for the door, but Asaki lunged forward with a sharp, "Wait!" Her young captor turned and looked at her imploringly, a melancholy look in his eyes. She licked her lips and asked hesitantly, "Is this all for the reward for me?"

Daisuke laughed at her again. "You're truly a genius," He hissed sarcastically with a shake of his head. He slipped out of the room before Asaki could say another word.

Asaki took a deep breath and went limp, relaxing the muscles of her body.

_Hidan will save me. He's saved me every time I've been in trouble in the last few days. It'll all be alright,_ she lied to herself. _It'll be alright._

Meanwhile, Hidan and Kakuzu splashed through water-filled tunnels after the two-tails' jinchuriki. She was putting up quite a tiring fight, and Hidan just wanted to off her before he lost his head again—literally. He threw his scythe out in front of him, hoping to catch the leg of the kunoichi constantly evading the pair of Akatsuki.

"Let's finish it." Kakuzu growled.

Hidan smirked and raised his pearl necklace with the Jashin symbol in his hand. "Not yet," He could sense Kakuzu rolling his eyes. "Before doing that, you know I have another with whom I must confer," he purred, bringing the rosary-like item to his lips. He prayed to his god, eyes closed solemnly.

"You can be such a pain in the neck sometimes," Kakuzu took his eyes off the jinchuriki to glower in the general direction of his partner.

Hidan glared right back. "It's a pain in the neck for me as well, you know," He brought the necklace away from his lips. "I have no choice. The laws are very strict about it." Once again, the beads returned to his lips.

Across the water, the Two-Tails stood defiantly. She let through a smirk. "You idiots. You think you have me trapped, don't you? Well you haven't!" She clapped her hands together. "In fact, I'm the one who's trapped you!"

Hidan's attention broke from his prayer, though he kept his eyes closed. _Sounds like something that snot of a girl Asaki would do… Damn it, why am I still thinking about her? She's probably dead by now._ Not even a moment after the resounding clap of Yugito Nii's hands, a tag above their heads exploded and the severed boulders came raining down around them.

_This is what that girl will end up getting me. Buried under a barrage of rocks,_ Hidan thought with a sneer. _Get your head in the game, Hidan. And not as the _ball_ this time._

Asaki stared at the ground, trying not to think about where she was or why. Her wrists and ankles were rope-burned and there was a pain in her ribs with every breath.

A bright light flooded the dim room as the door slid open. A smaller figure entered the room and padded up to her. Squinting through the brightness, she saw the brown-haired boy Daisuke had snapped at. What had he called him? Hiro?

"Here," He extended a hand with a small slice of bread within it. Asaki's stomach growled with anticipation and took a bite, straining against the ropes. "I know it's not much," Hiro said, waiting for her to finish her current mouthful before offering another, "But if it makes you feel any better I didn't get any more than you."

Asaki cleared her mouth and looked at the boy. "You're Hiro, right?" He nodded. "Hiro, how old are you?"

"Fourteen." He shifted his feet and glanced at the cup of water in his hand.

"And your brother—Daisuke—how old is he?"

"He just turned eighteen. Why?"

Asaki averted her eyes from his big, innocent, and much nicer green eyes, in comparison to Daisuke's. "You all look younger than you really are... You don't have parents, do you?" She hesitated asking that last question. She knew it was hard enough when people automatically assumed her mother was still alive.

Hiro shook his head. "No. Dad died a few months ago, and Mom just before him." He held the cup to her lips, and she drank.

She swallowed. "I'm sorry. My mom died when I was very little." Asaki examined his shoes and the floor again. He gave her another drink of water. "Could I go to the bathroom?" she asked politely.

The boy paused. He padded to the door and scoped the small clearing outside it. He closed it and ran back to her. "Go quickly, before Daisuke comes in here." He began to hastily untie the knots behind her back.

"Thank you for doing this for me," Asaki said, waiting as Hiro worked.

"You're welcome."

"You're much nicer than your brother."

"Daisuke can be nice, but he can also be really nasty sometimes," Hiro mumbled behind her."He kind of scares me when his moods change like they do."

She almost stuttered again. "I'm sure all he wants is to take care of you. How many other brothers do you have?"

"Other than Daisuke, there's Shinji—he's six—and Kyou—he's twelve."

"Oh." Silence.

"I'm sorry my brother tied you up." The ropes around her wrists finally loosened, and she pulled them away. Hiro started on the ropes around her waist.

Asaki rubbed at her hands and wrists. "It's okay."

"But it's not," He said calmly in reply. "It's wrong. He doesn't realize you're a person too, not just a lost dog. All he wants is your father's money," He dropped the ropes around her waist and began untying those around her knees and ankles.

Asaki's eyes widened with realization. Images of Hidan and Kakuzu nearly destroying her home came to her mind, followed by Kakuzu walking off into the rain with a briefcase full of her father's reward money. "It's all gone," She whispered.

Hiro pulled the last ropes off his brother's hostage and they stood. "Huh?"

"It's all gone. The money, I mean. Somebody's already claimed the reward. There's nothing left."

"Are you sure?" Hiro's face fell, realizing that his brother had made Asaki go through all of this discomfort and trouble for absolutely nothing. The anticipation of healthy amounts of food from the money they were to receive just dissolved.

Asaki nodded. "Two people turned me in, and they took the money, but I escaped again. I really don't want to be there," She added with a sigh.

Hiro put a hand to his forehead, rubbing his eyes. "Daisuke's going to blow up if he finds out."

"Finds out what?" Their heads snapped to the door. Innocent blue eyes almost obscured by fluffy black hair peeked in at them. "Who are you?" He scrunched his thick brows together, tilting his head at Asaki.

"She's one of Daisuke's friends, Shinji. Can you do me a favor and go find my sketchbook, please? And keep her a secret, okay? It's a surprise that she's here," The older of the two boys there pointed at her with his thumb. When the little kid nodded and ran away, Hiro grabbed the runaway by the wrist and pulled her out of the room.

"This is _not_ good," Hiro shook his head, mumbling to himself under his breath. The boy skirted the small cabin Asaki had been kept in. When they entered again from the larger portion of the structure on the back, there was another boy—Kyou—reading a book at a small table. He glanced up. "Kyou, where's Daisuke?"

Hiro's younger brother had dark brown hair, but it was cut short and clean. His blue eyes were clear and attentive. "He went into town to see about the reward for that girl," He eyed Asaki. "What are you guys doing?" The dread in his voice grew.

Hiro could only sigh under his breath and add on to his earlier statement, "This is _really_ not good," He swallowed and looked up at his brother. "That reward's gone. Somebody already took it but she left again. And if we get caught with her, I'm more than sure they're going to think we kidnapped her." Asaki's eyes widened with that realization. "You're old enough to know," Hiro continued to his brother, "about Daisuke's moods. I want you to get Shinji—he should at my tree by the stream—and just stay here. If you hear Daisuke coming, steer clear of him for a while; he might still be angry. Got it?"

Kyou nodded, fear flashing through his eyes before it cleared and replaced with a firm resolve. "Okay."

Hiro left Asaki in the living room and scurried away, around a corner the runaway couldn't quite see down. She looked at the boy in front of her, who had set down his book and began to rise. She looked at her feet. "I'm very sorry I put you through all of this," she apologized.

Kyou only shook his head. "It's not your fault. Daisuke gets like this from pretty much every other thing that's… unfavorable. It's not your fault he can't turn you in as a hostage."

"I really wish I could do something, though—" Asaki was cut off.

"Don't. We're alright. We don't need your pity. Just take care of yourself and we'll take care of us."

"He's right." Hiro had reappeared from around the corner with her bag and mat. "You're lucky Daisuke didn't sell this stuff," He handed it to Asaki. "Just get going. We all think it's best if you're not around when I tell him you got away."

Asaki let out a hollow chuckle, otherwise speechless. Kyou said what was probably closest on her mind: "Yeah, it would make for a pretty bad lie."

"I can't thank you guys enough," Asaki said, shrugging on her pack. "And I know I'm apologizing for things that supposedly aren't my fault, but I still think they are. If I hadn't run away, you wouldn't be in this mess with your brother—" Once again, she was cut off with a scoff from Hiro.

"We're in this mess with our brother if he misses the last _apple_ at the market. His anger is nothing new," He shrugged, turning her away with a hand on her shoulder. "But he'll be back soon, so I suggest you go. I'm going to go break the news to him before he's back."

"O-okay," Asaki nodded, hopping out the door ahead of the fourteen-year-old. "Good luck!" She called as she turned toward the forest at the back of the house. She'd worry about navigating when it got dark—which wouldn't be in too much longer.

Hiro waved behind him, throwing a glance over his shoulder. "I should be saying that to you!"

Asaki took off, jogging through the woods. While she made a racket any ninja would cringe at, she managed to reach the stream Hiro had spoke of before too long. She paused at its edge, panting from the effort.

She took off her sandals and dipped her feet into the cool babbling water. A sigh of relief escaped her, and she swallowed. As she stared into the clear sandy bottom of the stream, she couldn't help but think of the boys she just ran away from. Hiro was the only person who had helped her since she left her home almost two weeks ago. _And not to sound snobby,_ she thought, _but they were poor._

Asaki began to whisper under her breath, confused, "Why would people with so little give to a brat like me? Sure, the bread wasn't much, but nobody else was that nice to me…"

Before she knew it, a drop fell into the water at her feet, followed by another and another. She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. The growing rain hid her tears. Both showers picked up, and Asaki crouched down in the center of the stream, crying.

**A/N: **

I LIIIIIIIIIIVE! *rises from the depths of the abyss that is hiatus like Mushu from Mulan*

Sorry for being away for so long! This summer's been a busy one, and I guess I'm Bass Ackwards when it comes to the frequency of my writing. I write more during the school year (Can I get a hell yeah for procrastination?) than in the summer, I guess. That, and I've been working on a few of my Death Note projects. Heh.

SO. Now that I'm back, how is everyone? What do you think of the new chapter? Constructive criticism influences me to keep writing and keep improving, so it's always very welcome! :)

Once again, I'm sorry for disappearing! Don't kill me, please? :3 It won't be as long next time, I Pinky Pie promise. And a huge thanks to those who have followed along even through my temporary absence from Earth, as well as new readers!

See you next time! :D


	10. Chapter 10

Hidan let out an aggravated sigh. "Come on," he whined, waving toward his partner slightly ahead of him, "I'm fucking starving. You've got five hearts; it doesn't matter if one gives out. But me? I've only got one body. I _need food."_

"All the more reason to go without. The faster I'm rid of you, the better," Kakuzu grumbled. His hand's grip on the dead Chiriku over his shoulder tightened with frustration at his immortal companion.

Hidan could only groan obnoxiously and stomp his feet for a few steps. "But I'm hungryyyyyyyy," He drawled out the word childishly.

Kakuzu growled rabidly, like some sort of vicious and angry wild animal you'd find stalking its prey in the forest. Nonetheless, he reached into his cloak and retrieved a small box from some unseen compartment within the article. He held it out beside him, and Hidan sped up slightly to grab it.

"_Thank_ you," Hidan threw his head back with the exclamation and opened the box, revealing a few rolls of seafood-infused rice balls and fish. Without much of a second thought, Hidan rudely plunged into his meal as he walked. Kakuzu could only shake his head, irritated, and continue their trek toward the exchange point. After all, the bounty for this man, one of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve, was worth ten million more than their previous catch, Aomizu Kiagii with a measly reward of twenty-five.

x

The birds were obnoxiously loud.

Asaki's eyes blinked open to a flawless expanse of blue sky above her. She overslept. A dull ache pulsed through most of her body, and she slid her hand down her face tiredly with a small groan. Three days of nonstop walking and traveling since her escape from the bipolar Daisuke was starting to take its toll.

Already, she'd had to stop and ask for ragtag odd jobs for meals. For someone so unused to working, an hour in the rice fields or sweeping up a shop was difficult for her. But at least she ate.

She lifted her head from her sleeping mat with some difficulty as the sharp prodding escalated behind her eyes. With a sigh of the fresh forest air, Asaki began to clean up her campsite. In less than ten minutes, there was not a trace of her, and the runaway was on her way.

Her gray eyes were trained on the ground, watching step after step, one foot in front of the other. Eventually, one of those steps would lead her into the Hidden Leaf Village. They had already led her into the Land of Fire the previous day, near twilight. It was a different place, but the landscape was scarcely different from the forest she'd been wandering through for the past two days.

_I wish I was with Hidan and Kakuzu,_ she thought to herself. She briefly wondered where they were, or who they had killed since she had last seen them. They—or at least Kakuzu—may not have been the nicest people she'd come across, but at least she was sure that Kakuzu always had some sort of food stashed with him at all times. Even if Kakuzu didn't voluntarily give her any, Hidan would.

_Hidan._ Asaki snorted at the thought of the immortal. He was annoying and complained far too often, always spewed impromptu sermons about Jashin, and was habitually up to mow somebody down. He had done all of the above in her short time with him, but Asaki had no doubt he was like that all the time.

_But at the same time,_ she considered,_ he's watched out for my well-being._ Asaki couldn't say she saw Hidan doing that for too many people. She openly acknowledged that she was lucky for being one of those people—if not, the _only _person—the silver-haired man had ever protected. After all, that was a sin—holding back death and destruction, that is.

With the audible growl of her stomach, Asaki turned her eyes upward and began looking for any sign of civilization. She could always head back to the border village she passed through yesterday, or she could keep going and hope she found a place to eat. She paused and glanced behind her. "How far was it…?" With a tired shake of her head, Asaki simply decided to keep walking and wish for the best.

Fortunately for her, the best came in not as long a time as she had expected. A roadside curry joint sat on the top of the next ridge, and the runaway sighed with relief. "Finally," she mumbled to herself, "some good luck."

With already aching feet, Asaki pulled the curtain back from the small stand. She plopped down on the seat farthest to the left, away from two women who sat at the end of the table. She couldn't help but listen into their buzzing and excited conversation.

"I'm so excited for you!" One woman, with black hair and slightly tanner skin than the other, gushed to her friend as they waited patiently for their food.

"It's kind of scary, though," the pale, brown-haired woman replied, wringing her hands together. "It's exciting, yeah! But just think about it—I have a child growing inside of me!"

"Miss?" Asaki's head snapped up from the bench to the vendor before her. "May I help you?" The small smile on his lips was genuine, but impatient. It took her a moment to realize that he had probably asked several times while she spaced out, eavesdropping.

She could only stutter a reply, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have any money. I-I was just taking a rest; I hope you don't mind." Her stomach decided to growl once more at the most inopportune moment for her.

The vendor only offered a sympathetic smile and a nod, "Go ahead and sit as long as you like."

Asaki nodded. "Thank you very much."

The flapping of the curtain behind her caught her attention before she got to return to eavesdropping and she threw a curious glance over her shoulder. A girl who looked about Asaki's age entered. Silently, she tapped on the black-haired girl sitting at the opposite end of the stand. She turned around, and Asaki realized how similar they looked. The younger girl was just slightly thinner and paler, adding an almost sickly look to her.

"Emi?" The younger girl began to wave her hands around, murmuring gibberish under her breath. Enthralled, Asaki turned slightly in her seat, watching her gestures, all of which were precise and meaningful.

With a disappointed sigh and a few quick motions in return, the woman turn to her friend beside her and explained, "I'm sorry, Kite. I've got to go; Sora's tripped into the stream and she thinks his leg's broken," She stood up, just as their meals were slid across the counter in front of them. "I swear, one of these days, I'll be able to stay out a full day without tragedy striking."

"It's alright, Mako. You go take care of your brother. You're great at caring for kids already. I didn't have younger siblings, though. I don't know what I'm going to do when this kid's born," The brunette placed a worried hand on her small stomach. "I don't know how you take care of your mother, a deaf girl, and a boy with far too much energy for his own good. I'm fretting over just _one._"

"It'll come naturally. Don't worry about it." She smiled and turned her sister out of the shop, signaling something else to her as the curtain flapped behind her.

The woman left behind looked at the curry Mako had ordered, then glanced down the counter to Asaki. The runaway quickly turned her gaze away, not wanting to look rude. "Uh, would you like this? As you can see, it would otherwise be a waste, and I couldn't help but hear you didn't order anything."

Asaki looked back at the woman. "No thanks," she shook her head, "I don't have any money to repay you, I'm sorry."

She waved her off. "Don't worry about it. It's my treat," She patted the seat beside her and Asaki gratefully relocated herself.

"Thank you so much for this," the runaway smiled. "I'm Asaki, by the way."

"It's very nice to meet you, Asaki. I'm Kite," she stuck her hand out, and Asaki took it. "This was supposed to be my celebratory lunch. I just found out I'm pregnant," Kite beamed, proud of the news she just gave.

Asaki raised her eyebrows pleasantly. "Congratulations!"

"My husband doesn't know yet, though. I don't know how I'm going to tell him," she went on, oblivious to Asaki's discomfort. "Bless his soul, though. I love that man to death," She took a bite of the curry on her plate with a faint nod and a grin. Asaki nodded along, taking her own bite of the spicy mixture. Once Kite cleared her mouth, she glanced at her guest once again and mumbled dreamily, "He's such a sweetheart. Do you have anyone special?"

"Uh…" Asaki stammered awkwardly in reply.

Kite jumped to apologize, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry or anything!"

The runaway smiled and shrugged, "Oh, it's fine, it's fine. I don't mind, really." She took another bite of her curry. She swallowed, tilting her head hesitantly toward the woman beside her. "I suppose there's this one guy…"

x

"_Ugh,"_ Hidan moaned, clutching at his stomach. "I think that fish was bad—" He cut himself off with a hiccup. Kakuzu ahead ignored him. "I mean, between that fish and the reek of this guy," the immortal waved at the body still being trucked over his shoulder, "I think I'm gonna hurl."

Sure enough, barely a moment after he finished speaking, Hidan turned to the undergrowth of the woods beside him and emptied the meal he had so recently consumed into the bushes. Kakuzu didn't even cringe as he kept walking. "Catch up when you're done," was his only instruction. It was lost on the sick Akatsuki.

Hidan gagged again, and a snide thought entered his head: _just the sound of his voice is enough to make me sick. _He would have said it too, had he not been as busy as he was.

He spit into the bushes one more time after a minute or two and stood straight. He sighed and looked around, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "The fucking _asshole_ left me behind!" Swiping his tongue around his mouth, Hidan mustered up another spit onto the ground as he walked. _Such a fucking asshole! _The immortal began to walk after his partner.

A memory popped up in his mind of Asaki, as they left the ramen shop only a few days ago. "_Can't we just say we're all assholes and just move on?" _He snorted, grinning. She had a certain charm, that girl.

"_Fuck,"_ he hissed, berating himself when he caught himself smiling at the memory. He squeezed his eyes close, pausing. Why the hell was he still thinking of that girl?! Turning to the nearest tree, Hidan lifted his hands and punched the thick trunk of the old oak with both fists, screaming, "_What the fuck is wrong with me?!_"

Silence overtook the bit of trail and woods he was at. Only then did he notice that the light sound of a flute playing had stopped.

"Easy. You're in _love."_

Hidan almost jumped. Instead, he turned slowly around, glancing at the man sitting on the ground, back to a tree. He looked dirty, though not in physically bad shape. _Who would voluntarily sit on the filthy ground, _was Hidan's first reaction. Then the man's statement sunk in. Hidan looked at him guardedly, eyebrows drawn together suspiciously.

The pit of his stomach dropped with the comprehension of the final word. Or rather, at the images of the young Cloud girl that flicked through Hidan's head. He could _deny_ it, which generally worked, or….

"Define 'love.'"

"Come on, man," the flutist said, dropping his instrument completely in his lap. He tilted his head knowingly. "You can't stop thinking about her. You're palms sweat and your heart races at the sound of her name. You see her in your mind's eye, right this second," He smirked at Hidan's uncomfortable look, accompanied by a curt shake of his head. "Don't try to deny it. You're in love with her."

"Man, _you_ come on," He scowled, rolling his eyes. "You think _I_ would fall for some girl? I'm not cut out for that romance shit. I only love one person, and that's Jashin!" He could feel a sermon coming on.

The man only stretched out his legs and smirked. "Say all you want. But I can see it. Anyone could, if they look close enough. Hidan made a noise similar to someone being strangled. The man only smiled wider. "See? You're nervous. Your heart's beating like a drum. I know that feeling, man. I know it. I'm in love, too."

The Akatsuki could only shake his head. "I'll tell you what are. You're crazy. That's what," He stalked off, expecting the guy to just shut up and stop psychoanalyzing him.

He should have expected differently. "It's _love, _man! Denying it will only hurt you more. You _and _your girl!" The flutist's voice rose as Hidan put distance between them. He vaguely heard his flute resume its song after he was sure the other man wasn't coming back.

Hidan only shook his head again and again, more and more violently each time. "Fuck that!" He mumbled to himself, "No. Fuck, I've only known her for what, two weeks? Haven't seen her in half of that," He was lucky no one was around to hear him muttering to himself. "How the hell could I be…" He left the words unspoken, though he knew they were there. _Am I in love?_

x

"So, let me get this straight," Kite began as they walked away from the curry shop. Asaki's new friend graciously paid the bill, as expected. The two girls walked together, heading in the same direction for a while, toward the next village Kite lived in. "You like this guy. You've known him for only a few days, right?" She looked to Asaki for confirmation, and the runaway nodded. "But in that time, he's saved your life _multiple times?_ But yet, he still acts like he hates your guts?"

Once again, Asaki nodded. "He treats me only a tiny bit better than his partner. And they fight and bicker like an old married couple. Just, a little more… violently." She cringed, picturing Hidan's sliced-open face and severed head. The curry in her stomach swirled.

"Honey," Kite smiled knowingly, "He's definitely hiding it. If he's _that_ ready to sacrifice his well-being for yours, there's no way he doesn't like you. Especially if he's as… selfish, as you made him out to be," She waved her hand in the air. "But you'll never know unless you ask him, I guess."

"Huh." Asaki hummed to herself. Could it really be true that Hidan really did have feelings for her? She knew for sure that she at least liked him. He wasn't exactly good-natured, but she cared about him, and as far as his actions could tell, he cared about her, too. They could joke together (if only about Kakuzu) and they could probably compete in a ramen-eating contest.

As for his selfishness… Asaki couldn't complain. Hiro and Daisuke had taught her as much about herself. Three days later, she still couldn't stop criticizing herself. All this time, she'd been trying to run away from a place where too many people wanted—needed—to be. Some people, like those boys, need the stability she had to offer.

But instead, as Daisuke had made _very _clear, she threw it all away.

Kite broke the short, comfortable silence that had fallen over them. "So, what brings you down in this neck of the woods, anyway? I never thought to ask back at Takumi's. If you don't mind me asking, that is."

Asaki shook her head, "I don't mind. I'm trying to make my way down to the Leaf. I'm supposed to be meeting up with one of my, um, friends' brother. He lives as a teacher at the academy there," she explained, brushing her hair out of her face with the tailwind that suddenly swept between them.

"Oh?" Kite's eyebrows drew together. "And did your 'um, friend,' live up near the Cloud?"

Asaki nodded.

"Does his name happen to be Kiagii? Aomizu and Hintara Kiagii?" Kite inquired, a guarded curiosity swiping any other expression.

The runaway's eyes widened. "How did you know?"

"There are only so many people teaching in the Leaf who have brothers in the Cloud. My husband grew up with them. They attended the same dojo for Tai-jutsu for years, up until they were of age to work in the Cloud. They worked as guards in some nobleman's home…" Her voice trailed off before bursting back with a newfound realization. "You're that man's daughter! You're Asaki Aikino!" She beamed with her discovery.

Asaki could only nod, dumbfounded. She closed her gaping mouth, taking a moment to think of a reply. "Yes," she began. "But Aomizu had been banished for an assassination attempt on my father, wasn't he?"

Kite's face darkened. "Yes. Mizu's stunt there cost their whole family their jobs as guards. Hintara went back to live with his mother in the Leaf, where he became a teacher there. All I knew of Mizu was that he remained close to the Cloud. He built up quite a reputation over the years…"

"That's for sure." Asaki could only sigh. "I hate to tell you this, but Aomizu died, not too long ago. He was killed by—" She almost paused before thinking. She couldn't reveal it was the man she just admitted to _liking_ who killed Kite's friend! "He was killed by a couple of bounty hunters. I could only watch from the top of a rift nearby, as I was leaving his house. He had let me stay the night to wait out a thunderstorm. We'd become friends in that time."

The look on the other woman's face was one of conflicting sadness and joy. "He was never happy with his life. I'm sad that he's gone, but I'm happy he's not putting himself through his self-afflicted misery anymore." She hesitated, "So, now you're headed to Hintara?"

Asaki nodded. "Oh!" She flipped her bag off of her back and dug through it. She extracted the note she had found in the cabin after Hidan and Kakuzu had disposed of him. She handed it to Kite. "I snuck back in after the bounty hunters left," she continued her lie, regretfully, "and I found this note. I don't think Hintara even knows I'm coming yet. He barely knows who I am, now. Aomizu never finished it, I'm sad to say."

The pair paused. Kite leaned against a tree, quickly reading the note. "I could send a bird to Hintara, if you want. I think he'd want to know not only about your coming, but about his brother's death, too. That's never something that's easy; I know that for sure," She shook her head.

Asaki agreed. "Thank you."

They resumed walking, but this time, the sounds of the forest became their soundtrack. A few minutes later, Kite sighed and stopped at a small path veering off the side of the road. "Well, this is where I turn off. If you want to come back to my house for a bit, you can," She offered, smiling whole-heartedly at Asaki.

The runaway returned her smile, but shook her head. "I want to get to the Leaf as soon as possible. I've already been traveling long enough, I think!" She laughed, and Kite joined in, though she could tell the news of Aomizu had drained some of her contagious happiness.

Kite placed a hand over her stomach and waved as Asaki began to break paths with her. "Take care! Tell Hintara to send me a letter when you arrive. I hope I'll see you again soon!" Kite called after Asaki.

Asaki waved back and shouted, "I will. Thank you for everything, Kite! See you!"

Kite only stopped waving when the young traveler's shape disappeared over the hill.

**A/N: ** Told you it wouldn't be so long. ;)

I really like this chapter a lot, for reasons I hope are pretty apparent, heheh! What do you think? :)

I feel weird updating this in the middle of the night, but hey, it's done and I'm happy with it! :D I hope you like it too!

And yes, I will make sure to have the next chapter for all of you eager beavers as soon as humanly (and I guess academically, with all of my homework this weekend) possible!

Until next time~!


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